LIFE IN DEATH

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 September 1924, Page 5

LIFE IN DEATH

RUSSIA OF TO-DAY

PITIABLE CONDITIONS

8Y GABLB—PBKBD ABSOpIATION—COPTBIGHT. LONDON, Sept. 16. The Daily Chronicle’s special correspondent in Russia, describing the conditions of thd / bourgeoisie, says it is a veritable life in death. To save fuel several families herd together in a single flat, sick and healthy sleeping in the same, bed. Many “live on black bread and {potatoes. Only 10 per cent of the town population is free from tuberculosis, owing to bad sanitation. The water supply in Petrograd is under low pressure and does not' reach the upper storeys of the houses, and the sewerage is dumped into .the river. Typhoid has largely disappeared, but malaria is raging. There,,were four million cases last year.- The average salary of the intelligensi a Is 15s weeklv. professors returning 14s. Men of high distinction are slaving themselves to death giving extra lectures and writing books in order to . double their salary of 14s. A {famous actor may get 40s weekly -and a. musical composer cf world fanie, at a coiiseravtoruim, is also earning 40s. The beat paid i. embers of .the intelligensia are the socalled.- specialists in the civ.l sendee, who may*, earn £44 to £4B monthly. Everybody tried to become a specialist, N hntil 30- per cent of the civil service Act-called specialists.' A vigorous • comhing-o,ub then tc-ok place,' as tb© State was threatened with b-nk ruptcy, and officials :. e now being dismissed wholesale. Recently 30,000 students of the bonrgeoise class were expelled from the universities.—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn. .