Back to Barbarism.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 November 1922, Page 1

Back to Barbarism.

SIBERIA IS IN CHAOS. WHAT wide BE THE END? Siberia from the Urals to Vladivostok is one of the very rich parts of the world. Omsk, in 1911, was ono of the largest offices operated by the International Harvester Co., and is the centre of one of the richest agricultural districts in the world (says an American journal).

Now there is not a smile in two thousand miles of rich country. At Krasnoyarsk there is a wonderful river the Yencssei, larger than the j\lissrssippi and teeming with fish, hut no fish are caught because there are no hooks. If fish were caught they would he requisitioned by tlio ever-watchful commissars. The railway is operated by force of habit, only. The railway employees arc still willing to work because it is their only possible chance for existence. The railway shops are manned by inexperienced boys who play at work. The experienced men steal pieces of iron or steel and go to somo village where they can heat the material into a hoe or knife and thereby get a supply of bread, j ' FRF.F. TRADE, j The Soviet Government has declared free trade. This means that if you are fortunate enough to possess a frock coat of pre-war vintage or an enlarged portrait of your grandmother or a mndc-in-Gerniany statue of Venus, you can sit in the market place for several days trying to trade your possessions for enough bread to keep you alive for

a limited time. AVhat will come later is no matter tlio main fnet is to get something to eat now.

There is a little flour doled out by the Government, hut only the Government employees get it, and then only in small quantities. There are practically no horses or cattle left, and no means to plant or cultivate crops if the energy and seed were available. ' NOVEL PAY CHECKS.

The railway employees pet paid in any kind of goods which the Government may happen to have on hand. For instance, a railway shop foreman for one month’s pay received a carton of rubber nursing bottle nipples. TTo laid off for a week to sit round the market place to try and trade his pay for bread. Another employee received for his pay a few pounds of small bolts for which he tried for several days to trade for bread. Private business is impossible. No one is allowed to import goods, as the Government immediately requisitions anything needed. Last year attempts were made at farming, but the Government requisitioned all the produce it could reach and gave nothing in exchange except paper roubles. No one is well fed, except possible the peasants who live nwnv from the main transportation routes and hide and

hoard their supplies. There are no schools, there is no social life. There is absolutely uo news about the outside world except as coloured and distorted by the red propaganda press. WHAT WILL THE HARVEST BE? Family life as a unit has almost ceased. If fiftcen-year-old, John goes away one morning and does not return at night, some one may remark that he is probably hunting ford; if he fails to return at all no further notice is taken. Train loads of children from the famine districts of the Volga have been dumped in these Siberian towns with no organisation or provision for their welfare. They walk along the railway in hands, sleep in the streets, and die by dozens. Between Omsk and Novo Nikulniev.sk a distance of four thousand miles by a daylight ride on the railway, only five men were noticed working in the fields. No one is fully clother; good hoots and shoes do not exist. A foreigner in ordinary clothes is surrounded by a. curious crowd because ho looks well fed and is well clothed. There is no industry and no production. Each <lav forces these people further hack to absolute barbarism.