THROUGH SOVIET RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20597, 23 June 1930, Page 6

THROUGH SOVIET RUSSIA.

IMPRESSIONS- OF MOSCOW.

OVERCROWDED AMD HUNGRY* NATIVES SHORT OF FOOD. LAVISH FARE FOR FOREIGNERS* ■ * '■ v'■ BT MAX MURRAY. (Copyright.) • No. J. ; The first of a. series of articles on Soviet ■Russia, written by Mr. Max Murray, an Australian journalist, who has lately visited Europe and Asia, is published to-day. Mr. Murray has returned to Melbourne from London, by way of Russia—'where he had special facilities for making investigationsSiberia and Eastern Asia. The articles on Russia will be followed by others concerning Japan and China: To-day's, article, written in Moscow a few weeks ago. pictures that city as one that is overcrowded and hungry. The articles, the copyright of \ which has been secured by the New Zealand Herald, will be continued daily. When I decided to come to Russia I took my Australian passport to the Soviet Consulate in London, and asked for a visa. They asked my nationality, and I told them that I was British. But when they saw my passport they said that they could not give me a visa because I was Australian and nob British at all. So I went to the passport office and got an English passport. Next • day, when I returned to the Soviet Consulate, the vice-consul asked me how it was that I had an Australian passport yesterday and an English, one to-day. When I explained, he asked me how I would obtain permission to land in Australia now. I told him that I had some very influential friends there. . i ■ . So ended my first trouble with the Soviet passport authorities. Up to the present it has been the only one. Where People Do Not Laugh. In Moscow to-day there is hot sunlight and a wind, and clouds of dust rise up and follow the trams along the streets. But there is still snow in the shady places. Some of the people in the streets are wearing great cumbersome boots, and fur caps and fur-lined coats. They have not bothered to take them off. There is always to-morrow. Some are wearing their summer clothes, and none of these - are good, because there are no clothes of pood quality in Russia. On one side of th£. entrance to the Grand Hotel there is a beggar with no legs, who rests on a flat board strapped to his body, and on the other there is a woman who exhibits a baby whose body is covered with sores. Moscow is a grim city in these days, in which the people do not laugh. They look hungry and badly clothed. The soldiers in the streets seem splendid by contrast. There are a great . many soldiers. They go arm-in-arm along the unpaved boulevards, four and sis abreast. A private, off duty, is as good as his 1 colonel, and in Russia the million soldiers are important people. They are. a great drain on the. resources of poor Russia, but then there is so much talk of war. Every day the newspapers tell of the menace from beyond the borders. So Russia must have a great army to protect her from the enemy abroad. No Food Displayed in Shops. It is better that the people should be thinking of the enemies who are outside the country. With the knowledge that the whole world is against them, it is easier to understand why their lot is so bad. Wherever I walk in the streets I see, at the provision shops, long lines of people with food tickets, waiting- to be "served. In the afternoon the shelves of the Government provision shops are bare, and there are no others. There is not a scrap of food displayed.Moscow is hungry, and they say that Moscow is the favoured city. The labourer is entitled to twice as much black bread as the office worker, and the ' labourer has little enough. I was shown the allowance of tea for one for a month. Half a pound of butter would make a larger packet. ' At Easter a concession was made to the peasants. They wefe allowed to come into the market place in Moscow and sell' their produce. Butter was selling at ten roubles a pound and a rouble in Russia is worth a little more than two shillings. A rouble is worth a fifth of that amount outside Russia, but it is a crime to buy roubles outside and bring tliem in. I suppose it would be a crime to buy Russian produce outside and bring that in, for Russian eggs and butter are five times as dear in Moscow as they are in Berlin. Everything that is saleable is being sold abroad to finance the great hive-year Plan, hood, clothing, places to livej in—all of them take second place to the plan. Orders Now Delivered Quietly. And the plan may be the reason why foreigners are well fed in Moscow while the .people of Moscow go without food. For foreigners are necessary to the plan. Recognised foreign residents do not have to stand in queues waiting to bo served. They are provided with special passes, which permit them to buy what they require. A short time ago the foreigners' servants used to take these passes to the shops, and, without taking their places in the queues, walk to the counter and give their orders. But the hungry people waiting there made disturbances "and now their orders are sent by the foreigners quietly, the nigh't before, and their goods are delivered next morning. I have wondered how many Russians have special passes like these. There is no shortage of food here at tha Grand Hotel. There are often days when some high member of the party entertains foreigners lavishly in a * private room. It is really lavish, beyond tho scale of most dinners in London or New York. Every evening after ten there is a supper-dance for foreigners and in the cause of tho party tho head waiters appear in evening clothes. Russia must have foreign men and money to build factories with. Few Windows with Blinds. I havo no wish to sneer at Russia. If this effort is a willing ono, it must be the greatest aud most patriotic effort that was ever made, for the people here are starving, for an ideal; or would bo if they found room for ideals. But there is little evidenco hero tliAt a willing effort is being made. The people I meet are tired and listless. The Five-year Plan is a thing on every hoarding and poster and shown hero and there iu electric lights. But tho need of food and houses and clothes is real. Last night I dined with an American engineer. He and his wife had a flat of two rooms and the use of a community kitchen. But there were eight people living in the room next to his and four servants were asleep on the kitchen floor when I left. There is no privacy and not many of the windows have blinds, because a blind is suggestive of a man with a secret to hide. Because Moscow is a favoured city its population continues to grow and young women have children because it pays them better than their work. Children are needed, because they will be free from the old prejudices, so the streets teem with them. (To be continued.)