July 8
Observers in China probably foresaw some time ago the coming of the reaction in Russian commercial policy which Stalin, the ruler of the: country, has: now announced. with a very considerable amount! of detail. Apart from the other business' which is carried. on: between China. and Russia, shipping firms here are in' many, cases intimately concerned with the trade from Siberian ports: and the state of affairs at Vladivostok has for a. considerable time past been of the most unsatisfactory nature, parti cularly with reference to the loading of cargoes. This process had become so slow that. steamers normally carrying car~ goes of beans and similar produce from Vladivostok to Europe have been more and more divert ed to Dairen, where efficiency, has stood out in marked contra: to the tedious operations of the not been lost upon the Russian authorities at. Vladivostok, and lately there have been promis and guarantees made to shipping offices in Shanghai that radical alterations would be made, the loss of business having been of such a serious character as to endanger the very life of the. Port. It is understood that certain shipping firms are investigating the effect of the reforms proposed, but so far there is no indication whether they have been of the necessary far-reaching character. to justify firms in again sending their ships there regularly. The 3 forced and convict labour' that. has been brought into operation there, has not been a. success. Tt has been stated that the peasant farmers who failed to produce their required quota of grain have been taken off. the Jand and sent to work at the docks, and if this is a correct. statement it serves to account for the delays in loading and unloading which shipping come panies have complained of. After all every branch of labour, is specialized, and stevedoring far very much 0. Not only Russia. but in the past many other countries have failed to realize this point, and always with unfavour+ able results That is one of the initial points in which the recognition by Soviet of the failure of its pri ciples and practice has been brought to the notice of the countries engaged in trade with it. It constitutes, however, onl a'starting point for the much' greater failure to which M, Stalin has' confessed and which consists in the realization first of the need for an intelligent. sia and thereafter in the ever-present necessity for com= petitive effort. To replace the
the: people proc intelligentsia- this case fessional and technical know. ledge required to set Russian industry on its feet—the Soviet had to turn to foreign countries, and where engineering was con+ cerned the United States and: Germany provided the principal supply of experts. It is noteworthy that American. papers have recently contained quite a lot of material regarding the: work of these experts, and the question has been asked whether'
has not been of such a character as to threaten the industrial future of the United!
States. That, however, is by: the way, and the great fact to be noted is that the employment of: these men, who demanded: special conditions of living and? salary as against the dead lovel* which.the Soviet suggested for others, paved the way for the recognition of certain features lacking in the economic fabric of the country. While it seems to have taken a considerable time to reason out, it is now the the considered view of M. Stalin and his colleagues that, it is sounder and more economical to have Russian experts who employed on the work necessary to the Soviet scheme of trade than to get them from abroad. There will, of course, he exceptions, but that general principle has undoubtedly operated induce M. Stalin to announce that a new attitude must be taken towards the old bourgeois industrial intelligentsia, other words the concession is made that governments and political theories have not yet been. able to dispense with the aid of the captains of industry with all the technical training they have behind them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.