SOVIET SYSTEM

Hokitika Guardian, 18 July 1933, Page 5

SOVIET SYSTEM

AN ECONOMIC JAM a- ' FAILURE OF PLAN ALLEGED. (United Prees Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) '■ LONDON, July 16. “The whole Soviet system i 6 the biggest economic jam in .history. The strictest censorship cannot r long hide the truth,” says a correspondent who lately visited Russia. “No butter, milk and lemon 6 are Obtainable in the railway dining car, only a tiny omelette, ia 'little black bread and tea for 5 \ roubles, the. official exchange for which is sixteen shillings, whereas outside Russia, the rouble is worth two pence. A member of the Communist party, "with a full ration card get s value' far in'excess of a worker earning' 125 roubles Tenthly, the purhasi'ng power of which if he'is lucky equals-ten shilling? weekly in Britain. “As, the goods scarcity increases under the Five Year Plan, prices rise, and >are now 20 to 25 per cent, higher than When inaugurated. Many public workg are completely uneconomic. For instance,' the Dniepro'strol "power station, costing thirty-three millions ster' ling, a wonderful technical achievement which should feed factories with tenfold their own' capital, feeds none, because norio .exist. The Kremlin fllaims that ‘ twenty per cent more land i s under cultivation, ’“but enormously lees food is produced. Millions of workers goaded to desperation by hunger and poverty have become roving hordes, seeking a livelihood.” >; • UNDER-ESTIMATION' OF CROPS. TEN YEARS’ FOR OFFICIALS; RTGA, July”‘l7. Charged with under-estimating the crop s in Z-login, the director df A the Odessa grain trust, and also three state farm officials, have been. sentened to ten years of forced labour in remote region© and to the confiscation of all thei r 'property,' altid their de-, privation of‘civil . rights' for fifteen , years.' .. •.

Two other'W were .sentenced to ‘six and four years’ 'respectively. The Soviet .JOom’mifeaxiht' qi Agriculture have, announced j tlia't spring Eowings have', been completed for an area of 232] million acres only. ' This two per pent. below the- area, plantoed. ■ r *