RUSSIAN CONDITIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22213, 16 March 1934, Page 12

RUSSIAN CONDITIONS

STANDARD OF LIVING "EXTRAORDINARILY LOW.” “ Skilled workers in Russia to-day are not so well off as the unemployed, in England,” said Mr J. S. Henzell, who arrived in Melbourne from London lately. He spent a year in Russia as. consulting engineer in the coal-mining industry. He was employed principally in Leningrad investigating coal mining methods and construction. As he had been engaged in New York, Mr Henzell had his salary paid in gold into a New York bank, and he left Russia when he was informed that if he wished his contract to be renewed, he would have to accept his salary in Russian, currency.

“It is impossible even to exist on paper money in Rusia,” Mr Henzell said. “ Ten roubles a day is the average wage for a skilled worker. A pound of butter costs about. 20 roubles. The standard of living is extraordinarily low. It would be equivalent to about a quarter of the Australian standard.

“ Although house rents and bread are fairly cheap, clothing and shoes are of pure quality, and are sold at stupendous prices. When I left Russia, after living there for a year, the impression which I gained was that the country was being run by a Government of force in which the people had very little influence.