FAMINE OF BREAD

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 272, 29 August 1933, Page 5

FAMINE OF BREAD

MILLIONS FACE STARVATION.

IN NORTHERN CAUCASUS. EXTERMINATION OF COSSACKS. (United Press Association—Copyright). LONDON, August 28. The special observer of the “Daily Telegraph” in the Northern Caucasus makes a striking revelation of famine conditions. He says that bread has completely disappeared from the dietary of the peasant owner, who is resigned to despair. Complete apathy characterises the people. The starving peasant is practically a prisoner in his village where he must remain to await the end.

In some villages in the. Northern Caucasus the population is almost extinct. but the authorities do not acknowledge that famine exists, though without doubt it is more acute than in 1921, when hundreds of thousands were saved by the American Relief Association.

“When the sufferers implored for help, they were told that they could eat the bread which they had hidden away,” the correspondent contiues. “The distribution of lib of bread daily would prevent death from starvation, yet the Soviet Government exported 1,500,000 tons of grain of the 1932 crop. “It may well he that extermination of the Cossack population would be advantageous and desirable to the Government.

“One meets people .with legs swollen by starvation and others so weak that they lie about the roads awaiting death. Bodies are even seen in the streets of the towns. A grave danger of epidemic from these circumstances exists.”

A special correspondent of the “Daily Express” says that five million Russians are facing death by starvation owing to the tragic weakness of the Soviet’s second . Five Year Plan Managers and anxious to provide for their families, steal whatever they can. The pilfering fever is of such proportions that .goods- cannot be transported in Russia unless accompanied by armed guards. Tractors arrive on farms with most of the valuable parts stolen.