WHY THE SOVIET WORKER RUNS AWAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23953, 31 October 1939, Page 5

WHY THE SOVIET WORKER RUNS AWAY

TO THE EDITOR

Sir—As there are people in New Zealand who are still under the spell of Stalin, the "Red Czar" of Russia, it may be timely to quote from Industriya. of March 1 1939 which reports that during the first 20 days of February 1050 workers left the coal mines of the Sovietugol—a number which far exceeded the total for all January, This greatly hampered the production of coal' and the trust was unable to fulfil the Plan One of the main reasons for this fluctuation was to be found in the fact that the administration had failed to take care ■of the workers and their welfare " with the rarest irresponsibility and formal bureaucracy.” . .. ' “In the case of many mines,’ the newspaper reports, “ even such a simple matter as the arrangement of lodging houses is not taken care of in

any banner. In the community house of the Jeshov mine hot even all of. the workers there have been provided with beds! In mine No. 3-4 there are only 51 beds for the 105 workers living in the community house! , , .

In many community houses there are no tables: there is a lack of stools, as well as other room equipment such a$ couches and cupboards. The bachelors must keep their clothing in the dwellings of friends, by paying extra in the care of married workers. The bad conditions in the community houses cry to heaven, and are all the more shocking since the trust received half a million roubles in the second half of the past year specially for installing workers’ homes. The money was spent and the equipment purchased, but the greater part of the objects destined for the communi’ houses never reached their goal, but instead drifted into the offices of the managers of the trusts' and the mines and in their homes! .

in this way the managers of the Soviet enterprises just look after their- own welfare.” The editor of the magazine says: “No wonder that the penalty of death is imposed for attempting to escape from ‘Paradise,’ and to act as a deterrent the relatives of an. escapee are regarded as responsible. If nothing can be proven against them they are only exiled for five years. If. however. it can be shown that they knew that their relative was attempting to break over the border, they receive the maximum sentence of 10 years in a Siberian concentration camp.” Does Miss Gow still believe in this delightful land of liberty where everybody is supposed to be equal? The fact is that Bolshevism works under the surface in more ways than one.—l am. etc. Maran-atha.