SOVIET FAMINE

Hokitika Guardian, 29 August 1933, Page 5

SOVIET FAMINE

PITIFUL COKDITIOiSrs COSSACK PEASANTS STARVING. < (United Press Association-— By Electric . Telegraph— -Copyright.) LONDON, August 28. The London ‘‘Daily Telegraph’s” special . observer in the Northern Caucasus - makes . a striking revelation of the famine conditions • existing there.,• , He .says: “Bread has completely dissappeaved from the dietary of the peasant owner who is resigned to despair. Complete apathy; characterises the people. The starving peasant is practically a prisoner,in his own village. He must remain, there and await the end. “In some of the villages in the Northern Caucasus the population has now become almost extinct, but the authorities will not acknowledge that the famine exists, though, without doubt, it is more acute than the famine in .1921, when hundreds of thousands /were saved by the American Belief -Association.

“When the sufferers- have implored for help, they have been told that they could eat bread which they had hidden awgy. A distribution of onepound of bread daily would; have pre-vented,,.,-death from starvation, Yet -. the Soviet, Government have exported one million five hundred thousand tons of grain of the 1932 crop. “It may .well be that the extermination of the- Cossack population would be' advantageous and desirable to the Government. One meets people with'their legs swollen ,by starvation' Others are so weak that they lie' about the roads, awaiting death. Bodies , are even seen in the streets of the towns. There is grave danger of an epidemic from these . circumstances” ...

FIVE MILLIONS FACjNG DEATH “DAILY EXPRESS” REVELATIONS ' •■ t . . - . LONDON, August 28. The/ “Daily Express’s” special correspondent says: “Five million Russians/' are facing death from starvation owing to a tragic weakness in the Soviet’s second Five Year Plan. Managers and workers anxious to provide for, their ; faniili<ss, steal whatever tjiay can. The pilfering fever has reached such.... proportions that goods caim6tbe;tra;nsported:inßussia , unless accompanied by armed guards. Tractors arrive on farms with the most valuable parts stolen on the road.” §*'..• '■ • .