RUSSIAN RISKS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 30, 4 August 1931, Page 10

RUSSIAN RISKS

GERMAN'S ALLEGATIONS

The risks of going to Russia on nominally munificent pay to.help in the realisation of the Bolshevik Five-Year Plan are revealed ia the booklet of a German engineer, Herr Robert Misch, who himself has experienced them, says the London "Daily Telegraph." The writer signed on for 300 roubles (at the official rate of exchange about £31 13s) a month, aftqr being assured that he could live comfortably in the Ddnetz coal field, the seat of his work, on between a fourth and a fifth of that sum. ... 'His first enlightenment as to the domestic value of Russian money was at Kharkoff, where a night's lodging in an hotel cost him-46 roubles (£4 17s). At that town he wished to lay in a supply of provisions for the future, but failed to secure the card without which no one can obtain food in Russia. "When he arrived at his destination he was further chastened at finding 300 Communist miners from the Saar, who had come out full of enthusiasm and hope, but are now "desperate because their food—only bread and dried fish-j— did not'satisfy' their hunger." About 80 per cent, of these men subsequently fled. homeward from "the intolerable conditions of life." ; Herr Misch found that instead of seven hours the daily shift lasted ten to twelve hours. Frequently the nnderfed workmen collapsed from exhaustion at the blast furnaces or rolling mills. Sometimes they had to wait weeks for their wages. During the first three weeks of his employment, Herr Misch lost 17Jlb in weight. Telegrams remained in the post office and nioney remittances vanished completely. Packets of food from home took from three to six weeks on the way, and arrived with some of their original contents missing. On a single such package he had to pay 80 roubles (£8 10a) duty. Of this 17 roubles (£1 15s) was for a tube of ancho-vy paste and 22 roubles (£2 Ss 7d) for a stick of shaving soap.

in inorlevn ytocivy Hie Seven Seas refer to Ihe world's seven oceans. The phrase was used by Latin writers for the salt water lagoons extending for about 40 miles from Altkram, north of Venice, to Ka\-enna,