The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1929. RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 November 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1929. RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

Tt is probable l that Russia is the subject of more newspaper despatches, magazine articles, and books than any other country is at the present time, .hut tin* ciews expressed in this mass of literature have been so widely divergent that the public knowledge concerning the United Socialist Soviet Republics has not increased as appreciably as might have been expected. One fact that may be accepted (considers an exchange) is that Soviet llussia is not as “ united ” as the

Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party, which really governs the' country, would like outsiders to believe. “in the Capitalist Camp reign national hostility, inequality, and suppression,” one manifesto states. “In the Socialist Camp are peace, national freedom, equality, and co-operation.” The truth about this national freedom' is open to question when the details of the executions carried out by the Cheka during the ) last few days are considered. An '“important Monarchist movement, I disguised as a religious sect,” has it appears, been- discovered by the secret police, and the Soviet Government knows how to subdue enemies of this description. Fifty persons are executed after secret trials, and others are imprisoned,. It. is not .difficult to understand that, under such harsh administration, and in face of such an } iron discipline, Russian people arc anxious to appear amenable to their I Red rulers’ domination, and that foi this reason no visitor is likely to hear the truth about Russia from the Russians themselves. Dreiser, the American novelist, observed that the Soviet regime showed no signs of instability, but Dreiser was the guest of the Government when he toured Russia, and other observers who have seen move. ! it may be presumed, than Dreiser was I allowed to, find the country in a state of grave unrest. State enterprise, if it deserves such a name, i' crushing the private tradm- and exploiting the. peasants. The workers in factories have become so important a factor in the schemes of Stalin. Lenin’s successor, to make Russia self-supporting that the same system that destroyed “-class privileges’’ is busy creating a new privileged class. In these conditions there cannot be that sense of stability and content which is needed if a nation is to prosper, and Stalin is already finding after 12 years of chaos and Communism, that though equality for all classes, with equal distribution of wealth, may be desirable in theory, the result in practice is not satisfactory. Russia is urgently in need of money, and is prepared to encourage the investment of British capital iu its developmental schemes and to make adequate guarantees to investors that their interests will be protected. If the Russian peoples, harassed as they arc by the Government, arc unable or unwilling to exorcise initiative and individuality in the development of their homeland, the opportunities for resourceful outsiders to step in are thereby increased. Ihe Soviet Government naturally finds no pleasure in admitting this and in granting concessions to foreign capitalists. Nevertheless, it has been forced, in the midst of its sanguinary perversions of iustue, to realise the bitter fact that industrial progress arid oppression’can never be partners, and that before it can destroy aH monarchies is must call on monarchist countries to assist it. G hose who are not Coii'inunisls, and believe the “world revolution’” to Ire a long wrv off, will hr content, in the meantime to make a tidy profit out ot Russia’s internal unrest.