GRIP OF FAMINE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 December 1928, Page 9

GRIP OF FAMINE

T> EMA RE ARE E facts about presentday conditions in Russia are related in the latest iSoviet newspapers to reach Paris, said the Paris - correspondent of the “Daily Chronicle” on October 15. The “Red situation” occupies columns of space, which is a clear indication of its grim seriousness. In all towns and cities the bread card has been reintroduced, because, as the Investia reports, the harvest of European Russia is quite insufficient for the needs of the population. In the Khersion province, on the Black Sea, more than a-quarter of a million families, or nearly a third of the population, are practically foodless. In Ukrainia, about 1,000,000 people are in the grip of famine, and the Government is organising a relief scheme. In the Volga region, according to a Moscow economic journal, the harvest was very seriously damaged by heavy and unseasonable rain. In Siberia the crops wore good, but transport conditions are .such that it will be impossible to transport grain in the necessary quantities to areas in need o f it. All the Northern provinces of European Russia will be put on severely restricted nations during winter, and official preparations are being made to feed Moscoav on bread made of chemically-treated bran. This latter fact is revealed by a paper appropriately named Bednota (poverty), which states that the process for making this bread is being kept, a secret by- the Government bakeries. Some of this chemical bread has already been and it was thought that. it hiad caused the epidemic of stomachic and intestinal trouble in the cities.

Bed not a discovered that, private bakeries had also been carrying out v experiments in the production of bread,

MILLIONS IN RUSSIA

and that the common practice was to use plaster-of-paris to increase weight —and profits. These plaster-of-paris bakers will be severely dealt with by the authorities.

Investia, in an article on the food situation, say s that the “bread lines” or queues at the .Government bakeries are now three times longer than only a week earlier. -Such famine-like conditions are naturally having an extremely serious affect on the general economic situation. The buying of goods abroad is to be cut down to the utmost limit, and large orders for tractors placed in the United States have been cancelled. Then Isvestia also reveals a curious state of affairs regarding the vodka monopoly. For a half-starved people the Government is going to provide more—vodka. A great new distillery is to be built to double the production in Moscow, and even now the Soviet authorities receive a larger revenue from vodka than did the Tsarist Government. During the year 1926-27, Russia consumed 50,500, 000 gallons of vodka, while for 1927-28 the figure is over 100,000,000 gallons. That is only the official production, and the statistics take no account of the vast quantities which the peasants make and consume themselves. In the North of Russia, Isvestia states, the peasants use about, 30 per cent, of their potato crop, and in the South 2'5 per cent, of their grain crop for the brewing of vodka. The Government’s idea in producing mode vodka is to make it so plentiful that the peasants will be ready to sell more of their crop to the authorities. Meanwhile, the “Red Gazette” of Leningrad reports a great increase in drunkenness among the workers.