UNREST IN RUSSIA

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28471, 28 December 1957, Page 9

UNREST IN RUSSIA

Clues Given In Speech

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, December 26.

The “New York Times” said today that the speech made in Kiev this week by Mr Khrushchev, the Soviet Communist Party leader, was notable because it gave three clues to the problems which confronted the Soviet leaders.

These problems, the newspaper said, were not by any means all solved by the sputniks.

The first clue Mr Khrushchev gave was in his emphasis on the possibility that the size of the Soviet armed forces would be reduced. The maintenance of large ground forces was a serious drain on a limitpd Soviet labour supply that was beginning to feel the pinch of the low birth-rates and high infant mortality of 194145. the “New York Times” said. Then Mr Khrushchev had indicated that one of his current headaches was the reduced Soviet grain crop. This promised to be a substantial setback to the ambitious livestock programme. Finally there was Mr Khrushchev’s admission of the inequality that existed among Soviet citizens and his “disingenuous apology for the lack of major Soviet price cuts since April, 1954.”

“In these admissions we can see the great pressure of the Soviet people for a highpr standard of living. “Soviet citizens are asking why, if their country is rich enough to have sputniks flying in space, it is not rich enough to give all of its citizens anything like a satisfactory diet, an adequate wardrobe and even minimally comfortable housing,” the “New York Times” said.