MARKED CONTRAST

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 81, 2 October 1929, Page 11

MARKED CONTRAST

THIS PICTURE AND THAT

IMPRESSIONS OF RUSSIA

Australian Press Association.

. LONDON, 30th Sept. . In marked contrast io the Kent miners' account is the impression of Russia given to the Swansea Rotary Club by Mr. Dan Thomas, secretary of. a colliery company, and Lord Melchett's principal' Cardiff secretary. Mr. Thomas states that he did not see an ill-clad child. All seemed excellently nourished, and the whole nation had only the good of Russia at heart. Men performed the most drab duties only because they believed they were helping Russia.

The distribution of happiness, added Mr. Thomas, was far greater than ever under the Tsarist regime.

The management of the Tilmanstone Colliery, Kent, paid the expenses of two miners to Russia on the condition that they should publicly address the miners and truthfully tell them what they saw.

The men returned and said they were lucky to get out alive. Addressing the miners, they gave such a scathing condemnation of the Soviet that when the management subsequently offered to pay the whole expense to Bussia of any employee, none accepted. One of the men stated that on their arrival at Moscow, although ravenously hungry, they, could not eat food consisting of chunks of skewered beef, bread, and water. Some of the sights of the streets were revolting and indescribable, cripples and aged beggars of both sexes sitting and lying on the pavements and in the gutters Everything was most expensive. In street after s,fcroet there were br.?ad queues in which thousands waited all day for their daily ration. Housing was terrible. Many families lived and slept m one room. Thousands were workless. Sanitation was dreadful, an' there were millions of flies, and the miners' homes were shacks. The collier's averago output was three tons, and this had to be obtained boforo tho minimum wage was reached. If the output were less, wages would be reduced to proportion. , r

The visitors found inten.io i.mcial dislike of Messrs. Mac Donald, Clynes and Henderson.