MINERS IN RUSSIA.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18167, 4 November 1930, Page 9

MINERS IN RUSSIA.

GERMANS’ EXPERIENCES. A GRAVE WARNING. (From a Correspondent.) LONDON, September 27. Fourteen more of the German miners recruited ! by Soviet agents for employment in the Donetz coalmines have returned home after two months, disgusted with conditions in Soviet Russia. Their warning to other .German miners against going to Russia is even more emphatic, than that of their two companions who returned after' six weeks, and of an official of the German emigration officer. At first everything was done to keep them in a good mood. At Khar-, k'off a distinct division of the people into an upper and a lower class was noticeable. Luxurious motor-cars dashed through the streets past , workmen walking barefoot. The number, of beggars-was striking. By the time they left Kharkoff, after five hours’ stay, the German miners were already in rather low spirits. They were taken to the Amerikanka mine in the Donetz Basin, and were first given five days’ rest. The food was bad. Nevertheless, the. Russians were envious of the foreign miners’ good fare. Many of the Germans became ill owing to bad food. On the sixth day they were provided with tools, boots, trousers, jackets, but no shirts. Again the Russians were jealous because the Germans received good boots and they themselves poor ones. The tools were primitive; although American electric cutting machines were used, the technical equipment in general was primitive’ oompared with that of German mines. Attempt to Escape. Under the contracts they had signed the German miners were to have a six-hour shift 'and 140 to 150 roubles (nominally £l4 to £ls) a month. The work allotted to each man is too much to accomplish in a six-hour shift. The Russian miners consequently work seven or eight hours, and some said they worked on occasions as many as 10 to 12. The conditions are described as more than German miners could stand. They decided to get home at all costs. In order to obtain funds they sold spare clothes. ,They were stopped and- sent back to the Amerikanka mine in a cattle truck under police supervision. There they were interrogated and searched. As no "counter-revolu-tionary” intentions could be established their papers were put in order. The truth about Soviet Russia which these returned German miners wished to impart to their fellowworkers is contained in a few concluding. sentences of their 'statement, published in the Buersche Zeitung and quoted in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung— < "The cultural and social conditions in Russia could not satisfy any German working man. What the delegations report from Russia cannot be taken as conclusive, because they are only shown the good side of things in Russia and obtain no insight into the real life of the workers.' We feel it our duty to warn all German workers against going to Russia.’ r;