LIMITED IN RUSSIA

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20888, 21 August 1939, Page 8

LIMITED IN RUSSIA

SIZE OF GARDEN PLOTS A DRASTIC DECREE A drastic decree aimed at “counterfeit collective farmers” was issued on May 28 by M. Josef Stalin and Premier Vyacheslaff Molotoff to restrict rigidly the size of private garden plots, says an Associated ' Press message from Moscow to the 1 Christian Science Monitor. I Unscrupulous collective farm members, the decree said, have been rej sorting to trickery to increase the j size of their individual plots. It said that some have devoted their whole I time cultivating their own ground to 11he neglect of collective farm I interests. ! The result, it charged, has been an I artificial labour shortage. | Soviet Russia's labour discipline drive, which has increased industrial I production, previously had been cx- ; tended to agriculture through specific j time schedules for farm workers, and penalties for shirkers. I Some workers, however, were accused by Ihe decree of having been able lo grab so much additional land I that, they have begun selling or Jeas- | ing it. The new edict made such a pracI lice a crime against the State and provided for punishment of collective farm chairmen and other responsible officials. It ordered careful measurement of all household garden plots and demanded that wherever they exceed the legal limit—varying from about half an acre in fertile areas to two acres and a-half in arid sections—the surplus land to be added to the colicctive fields. j Henceforth, also collective farmers may work for themselves only after working for the community. If this should lead to a surplus of working members. Ihe decree provided. each collective farm must, consider migration of its extra workers |to Far Eastern, Siberian or other 1 The order also reduced the size of plots which individual peasants—not collective farmers—may hold. Such farms, however already virtually have disappeared. Although ail horses, agricultural machinery ,md field en.ps ;.,-o immunity property o„ f|,e collectives, e.M-h member is privileged keep |,i s . own cow. chickens and garden “when permitted by the chairman.’’