The Hokitika Guardian TUESDAY. JANUARY 30th. 1923. THE RUSSIAN EXAMPLE.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 January 1923, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian TUESDAY. JANUARY 30th. 1923. THE RUSSIAN EXAMPLE.

No one who rends with any interest what is taking place throughout Europe to-day remarks an exchange, will come to any other conclusion than that war is again very near t-o us. Tfc may lie that the disturbing factors which militate against peace will gradually disperse, but the elements which tend the other way show no signs of absorption at present. Russia is one of the greatest dangers to F.urop*. The Bolshevist revolution has done nothing but pet into power a band of .scoundrels who, under the guise of patriotism. have secured and hold office only by destroying without- mercy any and nil who have protested againsttheir methods. After some years of iHe new regime. Russia is a waste and p (-i.s-.vr. v land of plenty, ca.pabD- of

growing food for a ju,pnlntioii ten times in number those it carried twenty years ago, now Inis millions up,it tho point of starvation, heeause under her present system of government pro-dm-tion lias ceased. Itefore tile war, Russia exported goods to the value of one hundred and fifty millions, m which ex-reals represented filly ]>er eeui., and bought from Europe eommodiiie> to an amount whieh left a trade halauee in her favour of lifty millions sl.rling. Her railways tile great want oi the country, weie pushing out in all directions and population was increasing. Now, under Jlolslievik rule, nothing eumes out, and very little is impoited, the railway system Inis gone to pieces, there is no security for life or property, i At Imiever money the Government olrtaiiis is applied to keeping up an immeiiso ajiny, the members of wbi.li are provided with whatever is necessary at the cost of the population. Ri.s.-is. at | the time the Moviec came into exist- , em-o. owed England three thousand * million pounds sterling most of whieh j had been used lor the purpose of building railways and developing her internal resources. That debt has been repudiated. The eountry is now reduced I to sterility, there is nothing l-> ex- ; port, and every winter iiumlieds c f j thousands of tile population die from | diseases caused by inanition. Yet. with till t his, tae Soviet Government is | pressing ui l,e ad,Milled to the ocjm.iy j of nations, and because its door s in this respect are rejected, n is ready j to use force upon any excuse nil tinside of any nation which is unfriendly to those Powers who deny recognition. Poland and France have joined in an informal entente, and Ihe Soviet is today massing its legions upon the benders of Poland, and any day we may hear that the Red army has broke.i through the frontiers. A month ago Russia offered to join the Turks again. ! England, hut between Islam and Enl- '■ shevism there is no affinity. Tile Ic.llovvers oi .Mahomet know perfectly well that Russia lias no love for them or their religion, hut desires the complete control of the waterways leading into the inland seas, and that if she were seated at Constantinople the day ol Turkish nationality would soon end. Iveinal Pasha is astute enough to see that whatever England may want she has no desire to see Russia absorb the Ottoman Empire. Then the Red Arm.is under oiler to Germany, hut again while in the event of that country being compelled to call its troops into the field it would net. but for one thing, hesitate to avail itseli ol any assistance, the Sov.et Goveiiimeni might offer, the lour that llolshevism might infect the German army and thence spread through the ptoleluire. This is a contingency when the- Teutonic- leaders keep ever Indore them, and it is only the direst necessity which would force upon them the risk which they wish to keep at arm’s length. Throughout the- whole c>t Europe there is unrest, and the dilferent Governments, particularly of the smaller Powers, are thinking more cl" altering by ioree the territorial boundaries assigned to them, than of seeking by ligid economy and the curtailment of military expenditure to balance their budgets and arrest the downward trend of their exchange.