BACK TO CAPITALISM

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 471, 28 September 1928, Page 9

BACK TO CAPITALISM

SOVIET OFFERS MORE CONCESSIONS TRAMS, GAS AND WATER (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reed. Noon. MOSCOW, Thursday. It Is officially announced that the Government has prepared a plan to grant concessions for public services, including tramways, gas, electricity and water, in 60 towns, including Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa, Kharkov, Tlflis, Kiev.

The total investment of capital is fixed at 400,000,000 roubles. Tit's concessionaires will be allowed sufficient profit, but must supply the services at rates the population can afford. If the concessionaire invests sufficient capital, he will be granted a monopoly. M. Ksandrof, Trotsky’s successor as president of the Supreme Concessions Commission, speaking at a congress of Russian business men emphasised that the Soviet could not secure foreign loans and only short-term credits. Therefore there had been a marked falling off in applications for concessions since the rupture with Britain. Only 23 contracts were signed last year, of which 15 provided for technical assistance only and were not producing the assistance of capital. At present 74 concessions, involving a combined capital of £4,500,000, we»e being worked, compared with 54, and a capital of £5,700,000 in 1926. M. Ksandrof said the Soviet was offering 100 concessions on all its fields. He hoped the effect of the Anglo-French naval agreement would be to widen the cracks betwen the capitalistic States and so enable Russians to exploit the new situation.