Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1917 THE RUSSIAN TROUBLE

Hokitika Guardian, 15 March 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1917 THE RUSSIAN TROUBLE

The crisis in Petrograd reported daring the last day or two seems 10 have been precipitated by severe snowstorms, which blocked the railways and so stopped the transport of foodstuffs from the provinces. That is aK we are permitted to know of the situation, but there may have been political and industrial factors, suggests the Lyttelton Times, that have not been disclosed and of which we have had only vague occasional hints. The food and transport difficulties are not of recent development. They were aonte at the beginning of the winter. Primarily the shortage of food m the oities was dne to the fact that the peasants were in no hurry to sell their grain, There were ample supplies in the country, but they were in store. As there was no export the usnal processes of the grain trade were suspended, and the marketing of the harvest was not hurried. The peasants, moreover, were in no need of mouey, because the prohibition of the sale of vodka had made them com* paratively afflaent, and in any case if they had money there would be no particular inducement to them to spend. Prices have risen rapidly in general, and the peasant naturally Bought- an increased price for his wheat, particularly iu view of the fact that the recruiting of men for the army threatened a shortage of labour and therefore a diminished harvest in the following season, This seems to have been the first of the contributing cauges to the food crisis, but tbs situation was complicated by the fact that the military authorities had taken control of the railways and were virtually monopolising the main roads. The railway system is not a military one and consequentlv it does not lend itself to the rapid handling of military traffic, so that the disorganisation of commercial traffio was really greater than would have been anticipated ; and to the unavoidable difficulties were added new ones created by the failure of the military authorities to co-oper-ate with the civil. As long ago as June there was an instructive debate in the Duma on a proposal to establish three meatlegs days a week, 30 low had the meat supplies of the chief cities fallen. In October the position was so serious in regard to food prices that the average wage-earner in the capital was said to be existing virtually on bread and tea, Pish, meat and butter had quadrupled in price, and potatoes, to quote a corrcj-roodent, were as expensive as gingerbreads. Workers on fixed ealanrs bad been given a general

increaee of 30 per cent to meet the increased cost of living, but obviously the assistance was fur from udequate. When people who were living on bread and tea at length found themselves deprived of the bread—as tiny did when the railway services were in'errupted—;he position was simply desperate, and we need scarcely lock further for the causes of the food riots in the capital. To the incentive of hunger would be added the bitterness due to the knowledge that for twelve months earrest men had been pleading with the Government to handle the problem firmly find that the Government had fa lad utterly to appreciate its responsibilities. Apparently these have now beau fully realised.