Manawatu Daily Times Russia’s Wheat Crisis

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6633, 12 June 1928, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times Russia’s Wheat Crisis

There arc so many startling things happening on this side of the world just now—aerial victories and All Black defeats —that events in the older lands have been relegated to the background, and such onetime absorbing topics as the sins of the Soviet have ceased to create a daily sensation. One reason for the comparative quiet of the Bolshevist regime just now appears to be that internal troubles arc so absorbing that the leaders have no time to interfere in the affairs of their neighbours. The head of the Government, M. Stalin, is very much disturbed about agricultural production. Russia’s wheat exports, compared with pre-revolution days, show an enormous shrinkage, and M. Stalin can see no prospect of improvement for three years. This is due very largely to the opposition of the peasants, who passively resist the Government control of their wheat.

That the peasants have little faith in the Soviet’s methods generally was indicated by the failure of the attempts recently tc raise a, peasants’ loan. Grain export is vital to the country, and it was announced that the Soviet had formulated a gigantic export schema The grain commissariat decided that the exports for 1932 should bt 800,000 tons, and that these should be derived from great State farms in Southern and Eastern Russia, and 1250 fanning units, each of from 7000 to 10,000 acres, would be allotted as a beginning. All these areas would be State-managed in order to prevent “peasant sabotage ot the grain crops."

M. Stalin in his latest pronouncement explains the idea a little more in detail. He proposes to create collective farms on an extensive basis, to increase the present Communist State farms, and to foster the small agricultural units of individual peasants. His expressed aim is to keep all the farms in perpetual dependence upon the Government, and to force them to surrender their grain by threatening to withdraw the subsidies or cancel the credits.

The Soviet authorities have been much worried by the position showing a steady decrease in the acreage under crop, and the Council of the People’s Commissars, headed by M. Rykov, issued a decree calling attention to the situation, appealing to the Soviet Press, the Communist Party, and the State organisations to rouse public opinion to the dangers of the position.