CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA

Evening Star, Issue 20612, 11 October 1930, Page 6

CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA

A BRITISH LABOUR LiP.’S ACCOUNT “ INDESCRIBABLY Mr Joseph .Toole, Labour M.P. for South Salford, has returned to Manchester after a summer visit to Russia, duringwhich he visited Leningrad and Most ‘oh - . In an interview with the London ‘ Times ’ he stated that the conditions which ho found there would be intolerable in Great Britain. It was his belief that the population of Russia, both in the towns, and in the country, accept the regime and bear the conditions almost uncomplainingly. The world does, not realise, he said, the famine and the indescribable misery in Russia. Cultural- and economic life had been destroyed, and the difference was apparent directly one crossed the frontier. from Soviet Russia into Poland, where one saw new buildings and well-dressed people in marked contrast with the state of affairs in Russia.

A SHOCK TO EXPECTATIONS. “ It has been my habit for many years,” -said Mr Toole, “ to spend my leisure time in, seeing as much of other countries as possible, and I went to Russia this summer because I have always been a friend of Russia. J. have spoken in Parliament''for Russia on every opportunity, and I shall still, in spite of what 1 have learned, resist any attempt at interference with the affairs ot that country, and I shall go on voting for credits for trade witli Russia. But I admit that my astonishment at the real state of affairs in Russia, which I have now seen for myself, is all the greater when I contrast the facts with all the glowing reports I have heard from time to time given to us by Communists who have visited Russia and by members of the Minority Movement. It is true to say that the conditions strike me as Indescribably bad; 1 have nevci seen so much abject poverty anywhere in the world, so many beggars or so many drunkards in any European or -American city I have visited as 1 saw in these Russia cities, Leningrad and Moscow. , COST OF LIVING. “ The 'cost of living is appallingly high. The average wage of the Russian industrial worker is fifty roubles a month. You can take the rouble at 2s, 2d Butter costs nine roubles a pound, or 19s 6d, and is of very poor quality at that. Clothing, shoes, meat, bread, soap, and the general necessaries of life are all rationed out, and women and children are to be found standing in queues, with their ration tickets in their hands, waiting for their share of the scanty supplies. I paid 6s for four wild pears, 20s for a chicken, 6’s for a cauliflower; and a mile ride in a drosky cost 20s. Every effort was made in the hotel where I stayed to give the visitors the best they could get, and to create a good impression, but when I could evade my official guides, without whom ono is' not supposed to see or learn anything m Russia, I was told in English that 1 was getting better food than other people could obtain. “ I was frequently taken aside by people who whispered information to me, but also added, ' Don’t forgot you are being spied on all the time.’ In Russia you cannot see things in the ordinary way open to tourists in other countries You must go just where the State officials say, but the truth is that even the State officials cannot disguise the fact. Every five or ten minutes armed squads of the Red Army parade the streets, and in face of that

display of forco there is no room for any opinion to bo expressed about the existing system in Russia except the opm ion which the Government wishes to prevail in tho world. Of course, nobody attempts to organise any opinion adverse to the continuance of Soviet control, because. any person expressing such an opinion would be immediately arrested and- shot without trial.” ■ LENIN’S DICTUM. Mr Toole said he - visited the textile manufacturing area in the region of Moscow. He found that 810,000 people were employed in that industry. He added: “it appears ..to me . that the root of the trouble in that industry is ; that control of the big organisation is given to men : because : they were once successful' revolutionary leaders. and ; not because of their knowledge of the textile trade. Of course, it needs an entirely different quality of mind to control a big union organisation. The; only people in .Russia who are well clad and well fed are the official classes, and the Government takes special care to see that tho agents of its rule do not go short, but even in t-hbir case the endless supplies of cigarettes available cost a rouble (2s 2d) a packet of twenty and the packet does not contain one-quarter of. the: tobacco in ' twenty English cigarettes. The rest is cardboard. What would our workers say to a system that results in home-brewed alo costing 3s 6d a pint ? It might please, our Temperance advocates, but nobody else, I think. .“The Soviet Government is determined to import nothing from abroad ir it can help it.. All its effort is to export timber and other raw materials, and take as little foreign manufactured goods in exchange as possible. In fact, you see on a large scale the working out of Lenin’s dictum that the Russian people must starve, if necessary, or at all events must live on reduced rations as long as it is necessary, to enable the country to export its produce and receive in return tho machinery essential to the industralisation of the country, I have no doubt from, my observations in Russia itself that the Soviet Government is finding ready approval of that principle, and all it implies, on the part of the great mass of the population. They are sustained in their endurance of present miseries by Rykoff’s promise that in three years from now there wide be plentiful supplies of meat and other commodities—tbat is, as far as the town populations are concerned. As for tho peasants who, of course, form the great bulk of the population of Russia, the reason why they keep quiet is that they are better off than ever they were under the Tsarist regime. Of course, one has to remember that there are soldiers on every committee of workers and peasants. .

A NEW “ BOSS ” CLASS. “The best-dressed and the best-shod people are tho policemen and the soldiers. You can understand that when you remember that the Government clothes them and that good shoes for other people cost £9 a pair. Both the supplies ot new boots and shoes and repairs to boots and shoes arc rationed, and in Russia, with its climate, tho yearly allowance per head, is one new pair and one pair repaired. Soap is rationed on the basis of one pound per person a month, and it costs 5s a pound. Theso conditions give rise to profitering on a large scale, for people trade tho goods they get in the queues at the co-operative stores and sell out their purchases at still higher prices to people who are in better circumstances than themselves. The “ boss ” class has not been abolished in Russia. It has only changed its spots. In Russia today the “'ljoss, ” class are the Soviet controllers.- Motor oars are scarce in Russia. A few Fords are to be seen, but these belong to the State, arid are run for private hire. There are hundreds of motor omnibuses with Leyland engines running about the streets, but these are nearly all worn out. It is nobody’s business to keep them in repair. The trams carry nearly three times the normal number of passengers -on _ nearly every journey. These vehicles are conducted by women with bare legs and without decent shoes. Every driver drives a car with two trailers behind it. The oars are dirty and have not seen paint for years. The same applies to buildings everywhere, and of the roads and factories and farm plants I can only say that there is fifty years’ work waiting for the road menders, the engineers, and tho makers of tractors and ploughs. In that regard I found that America and Germany have already sent thousands of tons of machinery to Russia, and it is time the English manufacturers, sat up and considered how they are going to get a share of the trade doiug there. “ 1 have rio objection to,Russia working out her own salvation, but I do strongly resent the suggestion that Englishmen should advocate the setting up of a similar system here. It is impossible to conceive of such a system being forced upon a country like Britain that has developed, on entirely different lines, and instead of conferences being held annually in Moscow for the purpose of extending Soviet control over the whole world conferences for that purpose would bo more appropriately held in lunatic asylums.”