GRAIN FAILURE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 230, 28 September 1928, Page 7

GRAIN FAILURE.

SOVIET'S NEW CRISIS

Rupture With Britain Has Its Aftermath. FOREIGN CAPITALISTS SHY. (United Service.) LONDON, September 27. The Moscow correspondent of the "Daily News" says the Soviet is facing a new crisis owing to the failure of grain exports. This is partly due to the fact that 7,000,000 acres less than last year are under cultivation in Russia.

The decrease has caused a loss of £14,500,000. Another factor is the shyness of foreign capitalists.

Ksandrof, Trotsky's successor as president of the Supreme Concessions Commission, speaking at a congress of Russian business men, emphasised that the Soviet could not secure foreign loans and only short-term credits. Therefore there had been a marked falling off in applications for concessions since the rupture with Britain.

Only 23 contracts were signed last year, of which 15 provided for technical assistance only and were not producing the assistance of capital. At present 74 concessions, involving a combined capital of £4.500,000, were being worked, compared with 54 and a capital of £5,700,000 in 1926.

Ksandrof said the Soviet was offering 100 concessions on all its fields. He hoped the effect of the Anglo-French naval agreement would be to widen the cracks between the capitalistic States and so enable Russians to exploit the new situation.

PEASANTS FLOGGED.

NOT MAINTAINING FENCES,

(" Times " Cables.) (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, September 27. The Riga correspondent of the "Times" states that M. Molotoff, a member of the Political Bureau, confirms the reports that 300 peasants, near Izhevak, were summoned to the premises of the fire brigade and publically flogped in the presence of their weeping families for ignoring the regulations for maintaining fences. Some, when fetched from their homes, tried to defend themselves with axes and guns. The whole of the villages resounded with the shrieks of women and children.

CONCESSIONS GRANTED.

(Aastralian Press Assn. — United Service.) (Received 11.30 a.m.) MOSCOW, September 27. It is officially announced that the Government has prepared a plan to grant concessions for public services, including tramways, gas, electricity and water in 60 towns, including Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa, Kharkov, Tiflis and Kiev. The total investment of capital is fixed at approximately £40.000.000. Concessionaires will be allowed sufficient profit but must supply their services at rates the population can afford. If a concessionaire invests sufficient capital he will be granted a monopoly.