SOCIALISING BIG ESTATES.

ABSOLUTE FAILURE.

From an Occasional Correspondent. HELSINGFORS, Joly. The Esthonian State, like so many others, appears to be traversing at the present time a crisis, of which it is difficult to foresee the issue. The socialisation of all big estates, which has been carried out according to the law of Oct, 10, 1919, has proved an absolute failure. Not one of the estates taken over by the Government has yielded a revenue anywhere approaching the sums derived from all as long as they were in private hands. Even the forests do not pay, notwithstanding the enormous price of timber at the present moment, owing to the exaggerated expenses caused by the immense horde of bureaucrats. Esthonia employs about 25,000 Government officials, while Russia managed the whole country with 3,000 at the most, and the great majority of the population is already aware of the fact that unless private property be restored, and private initiative encouraged, the economic collapse of the little State is inevitable within a short time.

So the next elections, due in October or November, will, with almost absolute certainty, return a majority for the advocates of private initiative and property at the expense of the Socialists. But meanwhile the latter, whose spirit is supreme in the Constituante, are pursuing their policy. Since they know that the State has not got the means to carry out its plans in the way usual to Western democracies, they are trying to reach their aim in another fashion – in according no compensation to the persons damaged by the socialisation. During the discussion of the Fundamental Laws the amendment of the prominent politician Teemant to the expropriation paragraph, i.e. that expropriations are only admissible if an equitable compensation be paid, was rejected soon after the Agrarian Commission of the Constituante decided to pay no compensation to the expropriated land and forest owners, so that the majority of those who have done most in the past for the prosperity of the country will be reduced to beggary. But a contrary movement seems to be setting in. The decision to pay no compensation has created such a bad impression in Finland that the Esthonian representative at Helsingfors, Mr. Luiga, sent an urgent appeal to all parties in Esthonia, entreating them to consider that a law like the projected one would rob the country of all sympathy down to that of the most radical Finnish Socialists, and that confiscation of property in the intended way may end by being dearer than just compensation. The next day, the Baltic party in the Constituante, which had been almost silent up to then, made a declaration that it would never acknowledge a law which, according to its conception of right and justice, meant the spoliation of the whole class of landowners, and that the Balts would never acquiesce before having obtained just compensation in case the expropriation law be maintained. Moreover, that the Balts would never consent to be eradicated – the evident aim of the agrarian law – but would fight for their homes as long as they were alive, and always maintain their claim to collaborate in accordance with their experience and past achievements for the welfare of the State.

The impression created by this declaration seems to have been a very strong one, down to the Extreme Left. The bill of the Agrarian Commission was committed to the financial one, whereupon the National party (that of the Prime Minister Tönnison), contrary to all previous practice, declared that it had always looked upon agrarian reform as an economical, not a political measure. What is going to happen next? From an economic point of view, the whole agrarian law is an impossibility, and its inevitable result will be the insolvency of the country. Therefore it ought simply to be cancelled. But the present majority is not likely to adopt this course. The collaboration of the Balts is recognised more and more as indispensable if the State is to live, and the Balts themselves have given up their opposition to the new order of things, and are ready to join bands with the Esthonians. But their condition very naturally is that they should not be ruined first, and this condition is what the present rulers are not ready to accede. It is true that since this declaration the Government Tönnison-hellat has been dismissed. At present it is not easy to see what course future events will take. It is to be hoped that all classes of Esthonia will soon agree to collaborate and to adapt their party policy to economic necessity, instead of sacrificing the latter to the former. Otherwise grave internal troubles are more than probable, which in the end will lead not only to economic but also to political bankruptcy. Reuter’s Agency understands that the Polish Government has addressed an appeal to the League of Nations requesting its mediation in the Polish-lithuanian dispute, and pointing out that an unprovoked attack has been made on the Polish troops, and that unless an improvement takes place in the situation Poland will be compelled to declare war on Lithuania.