Hector Boon, Trading Expert, Describes in Series of Articles Prepared
for The World Conditions Under Regime of Soviet Which He Believes
Will Not Last More Than Two Years Longer—First Instalment Relates
Experiences in Eastern Siberia After Defeat of Kolchak—He Sought
to Recover 5,000 Furs Stolen by Bandit Chief Semionov.
_Here is Russia from the inside as seen at close hand for ten months
by an unusual observer—not an author, not an artist, not a
propagandist, not a sympathizer, not an enemy, not a Socialist, not a
reformer, not a reactionary, but a hard-headed, clear-seeing,
unimaginative, fair-minded, give-the-other-fellow-a-chance kind of
American business man._
_Hector Boon saw things as they are—not as some one else says they
are—not what Russia promises but what Russia is performing. And in a
series of articles which he prepared exclusively for The World he
tells plainly and with exactness what he has observed, what he has
heard, what he has thought._
_Mr. Boon, although of English nativity, is a thorough New Yorker—a
keen, wideawake, practical man of affairs, whose business as a
financial expert and trading expert, particularly for fur importers,
has taken him to many parts of the world. He has just returned from
Russia, into whose condition he had opportunities for thorough
insight. It was not new territory to him; he knew the country before
the Red regime and is able to draw contrasts between that period and
the present. He believes the Soviet rule will not last more than two
years longer._
_The World offers his narrative to its readers for exactly what it is
on the face of it—the actual and recent experiences of a plain
business man in the land which has been so clouded in mystery despite
the reports of writers of various types. Mr. Boon stands sponsor
personally for all the statements and opinions contained in his
articles._
_By Hector Boon._
Copyright, 1921, by the Press Publishing Co. (The New York World).
Sitting here comfortably in New York, with peace and plenty on all
sides, I find it hard to realize that it is only a little more than ten
months ago since I said goodby in Harbin to one of the principals of the
New York firm I represent, and then set forth on my long and interesting
journey into Soviet Russia.
During the summer of 1919 we had purchased large quantities of raw furs
in Eastern Siberia, and with the defeat of Kolchak these had fallen into
the hands of the Bolshevists; so my object in going into Russia was to
induce the Soviet authorities to release these furs.