THE RUSSIAN CATASTROPHE.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 190, 11 August 1921, Page 4

THE RUSSIAN CATASTROPHE.

Twenty-five years ago Russia experienced a failure of crops through drought very similar to the failure she is experiencing at present, but though there was a. certain amount of famine the conditions were nothing like what they are to-day, 'because there were large stocks of food carried over from the preceding year. Now there are very few stocks, the grain elevators stand empty, and what little food there is has 'been commandeered by the Soviet authorities. There is no doubt that the drought has been exceptionally severe, and the Russians have been deprived not only of their crops, but of much natural food | which they were in the hiubit of gathering in the forests and elsewhere. The shortage also has come at a time when the roads in many districts are at their worst, while the railway transport has been so completely disorganised under the Soviets that it is practically worthless. There is still fairly good communication ibetween Petrograd and Moscow, and some relief could he sent by way of the Black Sea ports, tout there are large districts in the south-east which it will be almost impossible to reach. Till the roads freeze over in winter whole tracts of Russia must remain inaccessible. The actual failure of the crops has, of course, been due to natural causes over which the Soviets had no control, hut the shortage of food is very largely due to the system of Government under which the Russians have been living. Droughts quite as severe have been experienced in former years, but never before have there been famine conditions at all comparable to those now prevailing, and the present calamity affords the strongest possible indictment against the policy pursued by those who have had the ordering ot" Russian affairs. Under Bolshevism the peasant lacked any inducement to produce in excess of his" immediate needs, and the peculiar system under which land was held made it impossible to work large areas. Sugar, which at one time was largely grown in the south of Russia, wont out of cultivation altogether, and at present there is scarcely any sugar to be had at all. This was due'to the fact that no man was allowed to (have more land than he could cultivate himself, and the beet sugar industry did not pay on these terms. When the pea-sants were required ! to make over all surplus grain and produce to the State in the interest of the doctrine of Communism, they saw to it that, there was no surplus to make over. When at last they were allowed to sell their surplus, there was no medium of exchange by means of which they could get paid, and the peasants would only exethange their stores for articles of which they stood in actual need. The supply of these articles ran short, and consequently the supply of produce ran abort also. Tlie result has been that there is no accumulated store of grain on -which Russia can draw as in former times of drought, and millions are on the verge of starvation. Owing to famine and the deplorable lack of sanitation cholera has broken out in many districts, and is not only spreading rapidly, but according to a message today, is threatening the rest of Europe. There docs not seem to ibe any authority capable of dealing with the situation, and the problem ot relief is complicated by the fact that there is apparently no organisation in Russia through which relief can be effectively distributed. Tlie Bolsheviks set out to make Russia a Paradise for the worker; they have only succeeded in making it a penthouse of disease and starvation.