SOVIET FEAR OF WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 22, 27 January 1931, Page 9

SOVIET FEAR OF WAR

REASONS FOR ANXIETY

ACUTE CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA

LONDON, 25th January. Claiming to be the only British newspaper man admitted to Russia for more than a year, C. J. Ketchum, "Daily Express" special representative, declares that the apprehension of impending war hangs hourly over the Kremlin. A high official of the Soviet Foreign Office confided the reason for this fear. He said that neither Poland, Rumania, France, nor England .was expected to declare war, yet, in no distant future, another Soviet (Ambassador ■would be assassinated at "Warsaw. Simultaneously there would be an incident on the Russo-Polish frontier provoked by roving bands of White Russians. •" Russia would have no alternative but to declare hostilities. Then 60,000 White Russians would march across Europe, upon which Prance would dispatch officers, aeroplanes, and" artillery helped by Bolshevik enemies in Germany, England, and America, and their money. "I tell you it is as clear to us as the stars in heaven. Our confidential reports from Paris and from Berlin tell us the precise moment chosen by our adversaries. "Who cannot but say that such a menace compels us to be constantly alert, and always in a state of preparation:" ' ' Contrasting his visit with one of three years before, when the shops were laden with provisions, motor-cars were to be seen in the streets, and comparatively well-dressed women were also to be seen, Mr. Ketchum. says that no longer are the public shops accessible to the man in the street. Workers stand in icy streets in unending queues in front of the State rationing shops for meat that does not come. There is black and grey bread, but eggs, milk, butter, and cheese are available in the most meagre quantities. ■ . • .■ • ■ Working clothes are purchased by certificates provided in cases of urgency, and vouched for. A woman's ordinary shoes cost from £18 to £20. In Moscow, 3,000,000 people are 'crammed into a'city equipped with houses for not more than a million. It is a common experience to find 1600 men and women crowded into an apartment building of 60 rooms.