SOVIET PROPAGANDA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 913, 5 March 1930, Page 11

SOVIET PROPAGANDA

SEAMEN SNARED WITH RUSSIAN^MONEY REPORT BY CHAPLAIN The influence upon seamen of institutes financed by the Soviet to spread propaganda is a danger stressed by the Rev. H. K. Vickery, chaplain of the Flying Angel Missions to Seamen in hi 3 annual report. The chaplain asks whether th-jr danger is not an incentive for Auckland to have a better equipped institute for the healthy entertainment of visiting seamen. "The Soviet Government in Russia has recently opened and financed institutes for visiting seamen in various parts of Russia and is responsible for others at ports outside the Russian Empire, including a noted one in an important port in a British Dominion.” he states. “These institutes, known as international clubs for seafarers and waterside workers, are based on methods used in the Missions to Seamen Institutes throughout the world, with • Ingreat exception that religion plays i o part in the work, but is openly ridiculed and mocked at. Officers are in charge of these eltius, in many cases men who have sailed on British ships. They visit the ships and the crews are invited to maks use of the clubs, which are hotbeds of revolutionary propaganda. The British seaman is especially catered for with the intention of making him dissatisfied with his conditions. “Show” ships flying the Soviet flag are point :1 out and conditions aboard for the creware said to be ideal. The literatue in the clubroom is in Russian and English and is of the deepest dye in red. The walls contain charts of statistics j showing the pre-war position of the ; “slave” and capitalist; others show the “slave” climbing to a higher posiI tion in the social world till he becomes I the ruler of labour and commerce. The only other pictures are cartoons I drawn to make religion and English customs look ridiculous. Is this not another reason why. vs ; should have a better Institute | Auckland?” he asked.