The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED DAILY. A "SURRENDER" TO THE SOVIET.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9846, 27 October 1924, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED DAILY. A "SURRENDER" TO THE SOVIET.

Whilst domestic political issues no doubt weigh heavily in connection with the British electoral campaign it would seem that Mr MacDonald’s Government's foreign policy is coming in for quite a lot of consideration. ,'Jn this connection, the proposed treaty between Britain and Soviet Russia has, seemingly, come very much into prominence. What has been agreed to on this matter by the MacDonald Cabinet certainly does bear out the contention of its critics, who aver that it amounts to

a surrender to the Soviet. It may be recalled that the Treaty provides that the British Government shall guarantee a loan to the Soviet hut absolves the Soviet from the need to pay anything to its British creditors until the loan is received. The Treaty then goes on to recognise that the Soviet is under no obligation to pay its British creditors in full. As for the future British traders will not have the right to take legal proceedings against Soviet trade representatives for breach of contract or recovery of debt and the premises of

tJfe Soviet trade representatives are So be extra-territorial and they themselves immune, so that, no matter if

propaganda hostile to Britain’s interests be circulated from them, the British police cannot make any entry or arrest. British traders in Russia on the other hand can at best get the treatment of persons of a “most favored” nation but they may he subjected to special taxation. Outside the Treaty, quite a lot of interesting light has been thrown on the Soviet’s ideas as to their rights under ic. Kahovsky, for example, has written in Isveslia that the British conditions would he glad to get a quarter of the amounts of their debts but, unless they accept the Soviet figure, they will get nothing and, besides, five years are allowed in which to settle the claims. But Belensky has gone a lot further. He has written that not a farthing of the British loan will be spent in Britain and that the balance of the loan, after meeting liabilities owing to British subjects, will be spent on Soviet subsidies and propaganda. In the circumstances, it is Surprising to find that Laborites in all British countries are expected to enthuse over the proposed Treaty. Responding to the S.O.S. from Socialist headquarters in Britain, the New Zealand Labor Party has already intimated that its supports this wretched Treaty, but there is no proof that many of the workers of this Dominion approve what is proposed. We should prefer to believe that the great bulk of this country’s workers are just as loyal to the Empire as the bulk of the residents outside their ranks. They can have no sympathy with Mr MacDonald’s catch cry: “By helping Russia wo help ourselves.” It is plain that they would rather the British Premier would take as his slogan: “By helping the Dominions, Britain helps the Empire.” A deplorable state of affairs is truly represented by the foreign policy of Mr MacDonald and his comrades and it should occasion no surprise if, as a consequence, the Baldwinites are returned in much larger numbers to the new British Parliament.