INTERNAL RUSSIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 December 1921, Page 3

INTERNAL RUSSIA.

AUSTRALIAN ANI/ N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. LENIN’S NEW POLICY. , MOSCOW, Dec 23. Lenih, opening the ninth Congress of Soviets; sarcastically atttacked those Communists who still believed it possible'to solve Russia’s economic problem by civil wai- and Communistic exclusiveness; He relentlessly condemned the irrecdneiiables who denied the iieP cessity of trade. His declaration that the Government intended to request Congress to authorise them to drastically limit the powers of the Extraordinary Conimission for fighting the ounter-revblntioh created sensation. He praised the Commission as indispensable when cdunter-rovolutionar.v plotting was supported by all the capitalist Governments, but a3ded that the Commission’s original scope whs incoihpatible with Russia’s new economic policy, and therefore it must be modified. NEW YORK, Dec 25, The Moscow correspondent of the “New York Times” says 2000 Soviet delegates from Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, and others from various foreign countries, including the'United States. Japan, and Germany, met in the State Opera House on the occasion of an address by Lenin, who held his audience spell-hound with his impassioned speech on the new Soviet economic policy. He said: Some of you talk as if being a Communist was everyhing. Are yon not aware that the factories are mostly idle. You call yourselves the proletariat, but until industry is re-established there is no sncli thing as a proletariat.’ He said the trade figures for the latter pari of the year showed a. real improvement in the economic situation, although progress was hound to be slow. It was necessary- to pass vet further laws to stimulate foreign trade and encourage foreigners, whether merchants or industrial entrepreneurs, to engage in enterprises in Russia. The correspondent adds: “Lenin apparently feels encouraged to pursue his new policy by the assurances of the loyalty of his followers. It is also felt that internal political reforms are pending. Possibly there will he greater electoral liberty, and a curtailment tif the powers of the All Russian Extraordin- | airy Committee.”