SOVIET WORRIES INCREASE

Chronicle (Levin), 1 March 1947, Page 5

SOVIET WORRIES INCREASE

Press Assn.

Worst Harvest for 60 Years

By Telegravh

-Covvriaht

LONJJUis, Feo. -J.1. It has been suggested that one reason .or t tio imerest Miown by 'the Kussian ,/ress in Britain 's domestic trouljles is .iiut tiiey serve to divert the Kussian ,-eopte trom their own troubtes. An indiciition of Ihe extent of Husia's own domestic worries is given by .ue sjjeciul correspomlent of Ihe Atanciiester (Juardian, who has just return- . d froni .Moscow. Most of the rati.oned goods, says the v orrcspondpnt, hu\e been inereased two •iud a halt times and, in tlie ctise of .read, tiiree and a half tinies. This ..as been uccompanied by a vcry mucli .c. eeper inciease m the price of food ..ud goods on the "free" niarket. The Kussian "free niarket" deals ivith evervthing sold otf ration. Jt does not correspond to the black mar aet, but the pnces ruling on it' are intuenced by tlie extent oi" black niarket •lealings. Bread aiul jiotatoes which .vere plentiful in the free niarket a year ago, are now verv scarce, and as a resuit jirices i'or these two staple ,'ommodit les have inereased appro.xim ntely livefold. Other vegetables and dairy produce are tiiree to iive times dearer tinui last year. As a resuit oi these priee iucreases ihe average Kussian tamily must exist on considerably .ess food, and it finds its purchases of anything other than bare necessities severely restricted. Parm Machinery Lacking. Even more far-reacliing is the general reduction in production per acre as a resuit of the deeline of mechanisat ion in agriculture. This as due partly to war dainage and partly to the big drop : in the production of tractors and other agrieultural imjilements. The State Flaniiing ( 'onimi.ssion 's recent report on the first year of the present iive-yeur [ilan disclosed that production of tigri-.-ultural iinplemeTits was only 77 per .-ent of tlie ijuantities scheduled. The famous ixharkov tractor i")lant whicli was eoinpletely destroyed by the Jernuuis, has now been in jirocess o. ifcconstructioii for three years, but at present it is producing only two or three tractors daily, or at least 10 to 15 times iess than before tlie war. Tlie great llostov agrieultural niachinerv jilant is employing a sixth of the workers euguged before the war, and ihe recent report stated that less than half of the reronstruction sched|uled for 1 L 1 ( 5 had been carried out. Tlie jirogress in restoring the Stalin grad tractor ]>lant does not appetir to tie mucli iietter. Althougli much of tlie machinery froni these plants was evacuated east I if tlie Frals, reeon\ crsion of eastern jidants wlii: h were engaged i:i war jiroj iud ion has not yet been jiroperlv completed. Worst Harvest Since 1881. A tliird and verv important factor i iifiuenci ug the piesent Kussian conditions is tlie poor liarvest in the Fkraiiie and Central and Soutli-Eastern Russia. Tliis is admitted by tlie PlanMMig ( '(■mmissioii to be the worst since INM, oue of ihe greatest famine years in b'ussian ldslorv. It Lias to some I extent been off'set by a better harvesl ui Siberia, but i't is obvious that food conditions in much of Western and CentraJ Kussia. will continue to be verv difli.cult, at least until .Tane of this year when the vegetable cro]) should relieve tliem. The termination of Fnrra oporations in the Fkruine and Wliite Russia will seriously affect tlie supply of fafs and meat to tlie fiopu'lat ion of urban areas and nianv of tlie rural areas. The cor respondent eonsiders that inevitaldv ' tliere will be a general incronse in Minrdslrip and undernourisiiment during jflie next t'ew nior.tlis.