Mr. J. Tode, M.P,, has returned to England from a visit to Russia with number of decisive opinions on the state of that country. He is con-Minced that the people of Russia "believe in the Soviet Government, and would stoutly resist any interference"; but he is also convinced that any sort of attempt to reproduce Russia's Government in England would ko nothing short of Tunacy.
Thave always been a groat friend of Russia's (he said in an interview with a "Manchester Guardian" Fepresentative) and have never accepted either inspired press reports or British Communist statement at their face value. I wanted to seo for myself, and I say now that conditions in' Russia are simply appalling. I have visited most Eurpean and American cities, but I have never seen such abject poverty.
may be seen in the streds of Moscow and Leningrad.
The State owns everything from the docks to the droshki. Even a fit-up stall which satis mineral water a Moscow square iv owned by the State. The tourist agency is run cly the State, and from the moment. you arrive in Leningrad to the moment you crows the border you Are accompanied by a guide with a idtinet Soviet bins, Hq is well paid He gets 260. a day, The i, guide meets you at the bedroom door in the morning and takes you back to it at night, and you: would see nothing that the authorities wish you to see unless you were akilfut enough to evade the guide's supervising eye, as I was able to do} myself for a time, He shows you the splondours of the Catherine: Palace and then switches you into the fortress of Peter and Paul, which makes you utter a prayer of thanksgiving for the work of Lenin. Thus the revolutionary bias is preserved. Lenin has taken the place of Eh in Russia. His bust or his ox his photograph is to be seen everywhere, and the whole popula-
their children to the Revelation Rasean te Peres they are given elsewhere to the Ohureh.
Try as they may, they cannot prevent the observer from seeing: that Russia is in an awful state of chaos. T have never seen a more: unkempt and bedraggled civilian' population anywhere. There are more beggars on the strosts and more drunkards, In Leningrad they were lying across the footpath, so that pedestrians had to move out of their way to get along. Nobody took any notice of them, and my. guide said that when the policeman had time he would arrest them and they would be sent to an inebriates' home, where they would remain for life if they relapsed. Since beer of yor quality is sold at 3s. 6d. a pint, I assume they had been drinking The raukle is now worth 2s. 24., and the average wage of the worker 50 roubles a month. This means that the worker has to live on a. staple diet of rye bread and vegotbie cil. All sorts of food, clothing, fand shoes are rationed. Even the repair of shoes is rationed. Queues form daily before the shops. A lane part of the population wears nothing but toe-rags. This is not surprising. A pair of good shoes costs 'AS much as £9, and their repair 20s, An i entitled to one suit of shoes a year, and pair a year, One pound at soap is allowed to each person every month, and this ration has do for al! purposes. lof this middleman's profit. Espec's1~ ly do they deal in butter.
Thinking in terms of purchasing! power, I declare that the unemploy-man in Great Britain, with a wife and three children, is better off with his unemployment pay than the average employed workman in everywhere, fields, Russia. Female labour is employed
factories, There is no such thing as personal liberty in Russia. The worker may Ido as he wishes provided he does as the is told. It appeared to me that one despotism is supplanting an-Jother. If there is any consolation, jin being knocked on the head by a [Red policeman with a red truncheon rather than by a capitalist policeman wits a black one, then that the only consolation that the Russian towndweller has. You may, aald any opinion you wish, but you may not organize for it, or cooperate for it with others. The State is remorseless, it gives no [trial or justice in our sense.
Capital punishment isthe swift! and certain end of those who attempt to ce-operate in opposition. Capital punishment, in fact, is now only retained for counter-revolutionaries.
When I spoke atour this to one of the high officials he said "There can be no personal liberty until the Revolution is over," but he could not tell me when the Revolution Jwould end. According to him it is stilt going on, eleven yeats after it About 80 per cent. of the population is iliterate, but this condition ikely to be improved in time by a recent order of the Central Exeeutive that all children shall jedueated under compulsion after the age of eight. The teaching will have a definitely anti-religions bias.
The World Congress of International Revolutionary Trade [Unionists was sitting in Moscow while I was there, and huge banners "Unionists kung to ism not peace but a There was no doubt in my mind that the sword had been brought to Russia, because every five or ten minutes, wherever I went, I saw a detachment of the Red 'Army, fully armed, marching' through the streets. This demon. stration was undoubtedly intended to have a salutary effect on the population.
But there is no doubt _whatever that the Russian people believe in tke Soviet Government and would Jstoutly resist any interference, jeause, bad as their condition i must' be an improvement on prerevolutionary life. Everybody is illing to undergo any kind of privation for the success of the Revolution, and because Lenin told them they must industrialize the! country, tighten their belts, and export their goods so that "they all receive machinery in return, what they are doing.
Now British manu!
I believe, one of their potential markets of machinery. I save the end American machinery waiting foe installed, and in Moscow there Jere very many Germans and Amer-teans who are giving scientific advice and getting orders for their countries. British manufaefarers should not let prejudice against Soviet rule spoil their opportu The names of Platt Brothers, Lees, jof Oldham, and Mather and Platt are jhouschold words in industrial Russia.
Al'eady the country possesses: $,000,000 spindles for the cotton. wool. and artificial silk trades. and 810,000 operatives. In some of the cotton factories one man controls 2G automatic looms with the as. sistance of four- cleaner,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.