LAND OF THE REDS.

Putaruru Press, 5 January 1928, Page 4

LAND OF THE REDS.

HOW THE RUSSIANS LIVE. Horrors of Bolshevism. “Red Russia is not such a bad place for ‘ Red * Russians,, but it is no place for others, ” said Mr. E. M. Newman, a well-known travel lecturer, who recently returned to America after a 10,000mile trip in Russia. “Few persons have anything approximating a true report of conditions in Soviet land/ 1 Mr. Newman declares. “The censorship is worse than strict; it is inspired by fear such as existed in France during the Reign of Terror; everyone suspecting everyone else, uaable to trust anyone or believe anyone. Their secret police are iadeed secret, not known to each other nor to their own families or neighbours. A chance word might mean death; so no one complains.’ 1 Mr. Newman took back with him oearly two thousand pictures taken in Russia, “at the risk of my life,” he says, “despite official permission to take them. For thirty- c ve years Mr. Newman has been a world traveller. Duriug twenty-five of those years he has been a lecturer. Seven times he travelled around the world, and saw Russia in the days of the Tsar, as well as in the present Communistic era. “There is no use fooling ourselves, ” he counsels.

“The Communistic Government is there to stay. I really believe that it put a popular vote, 90 per cent, would favour it. **

Mr. Newman tells why Under the Tsar the peasants, or mujiks, had iitrle or nothing, and were under the heel-* of the Cossacks. The first thing lone after the overthrow of the Governmeu" was the distribution of the land. Now anyone who wants it can have a piece of ground to till and live on, but not to own. Mr. Newman proceeded:—

“The Government is based on State capitalism. All the key industries and factories are in the hands of the State, which owns all the land and buildings. As one of the leading Bolsheviks said to me, ‘ln your country you claim that all men are equal/ I asked him what about the incompetent, the man who will not work. ‘Why should we punish them for a fault born in them, or a disease? Thev get f d, even though they do not earn their keep/ he answered. “The professional men are de-classed The worker comes first. A doctor could not treat any professional men until he has first made the round; of all the worker patients. It is the same witn food, the same with everything. /‘The housing conditions in cities are deplorable. There is a shortage of homes, even though all the palaces have been turned over to th e workers. Sixty or seventy men sleep in one room. The women also sleep together in much "he same fashion. Fifty or more families use the same kitchen. There is no such thing ns a bathroom. Unclad men and women use the same bathing beaches.

‘' D. v dree, too, is rare, because the husband must pay 30 per cent, of .ns income for life. There is nothing in the stories about nationalisation of women. The World War, then the war between the Reds and Whites, and then the famine, rendered at least 500.000 children orphans. They grew up l.Ke wild animals—still are growing Mint way. They slept in the fields, in the .streets —anywhere. They got tlieir living by stealth, so they arc export pickpockets. They had to steal to live, and they are still doing it. 1 *