A GRIM PICTURE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 118, 14 November 1929, Page 18

A GRIM PICTURE

WOBKEBS IN RUSSIA

REVOLTING SIGHTS

■ -Free passages to Russia for all miners and their families wishing to move there were offered by Mr. Tildeu Smith, owner of the Tilmanstonc Colliery, near Dover, at- a meeting of his employees, states the "Daily Telegraph." There were no applicants.

The meeting was called io hear the reports of two miners and their schoolmaster friend, who recently made a visit to ■ Russia to study conditions there, especially in the mining areas. All three men expressed bitter disappointment with what they had'seen.

■' Some time ago, Mr. Tilden Smith, in order to secure the active co-opera-tion of his men, introduced a scheme under which the miners' leaders shared the responsibility of management. Although the scheme worked well, a certain element remained dissatisfied1, and to remove the causes for discontent, Mr. Tilden Smith offered. to pay the expenses of two of the miners if they would visit Russia and study the conditions there.

Mr. W. Koomc, a miner with a wife and family, who formed one of the party, said that on. arrival in Moscow, although they were ravenously hungry, they could not eat the food, which comprised -chunks of beef through which a steel skewer was passed and black bread and water.

"We saw a sight that made us turn cold," he continued, "so revolting- was it that it was indescribable. Cripples and aged beggars of both sexes were standing, sitting, or lying on the pavements and" gutters." Everything was very dear, and as they passed from one street to another they saw bread queues where thousands stood from morning to night to obtain their daily ration..

"The housing accommodation is very <bad, and in some cases the families live and sleep in one room," said Mr. Roome. "Thero are many thousands of unemployed in Moscow. Sanitation ia dreadful, and there are flies by the million."

Describing a visit to a mine in. tho neighbourhood of Artinovst, Mr. Roome remarked. "On our way through the village we were shown shacks which used to house the miners ia the old days, aad the officials who were conducting us through the village told us that they were kept thus standing as a reminder of the people of bygone times, but on going a little further we saw exactly the same shacks occupied by miners. "NOTHING TO SING ABOUT." In one of the worker's homes which they were allowed to visit they found a .piano, and Mr. Crane asked ouo of the women* to sing native songs to them. She replied: "We have nothing to sing about." One person who could speak very little English told them that if'• they could go to England they would be satisfied to live in a workhouse. Mr. Roome. said he asked a local Soviet official why they spent a million roubles in building a theatre and allowod the workers to live in overcrowded buildings. - The reply was: "If we make the 'workers too comfortable they will refuse to fight or take an active part in politics."

On a visit to the new economic mines forty miles from 'Artinovst, engineers told them that the men.were working for nothing that day, the money being given to the Government for industrialisation purposes. The average output per collier was three tons, and this had to be obtained before the minimum wage was reached. Should less bo produced their wages were reduced in proportion.

Mr. J. Crane, describing their visit to a coal-mine near .Artinovst, said that after descending 300 ft they came to a hole about a yard square, down which they had to slide on their backs. They had not gone far before Roome said to him: "Crane, I am not proceeding another foot further."

At the conclusion of their visit a guide asked them: "Do you want to see any more of the mine?" He replied: "Not on your life."

; They asked the guide how many hours a day the miners worked in this pit. ; He replied, "Six hours," and he (Crane) commented: "British miners-would not work here three hours."