FACING STARVATION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 393, 30 November 1932, Page 7

FACING STARVATION

SOVIET FARM VICTIMS FURNITURE SOLD TO ENABLE PURCHASE OF BREAD. CATTLE AND HORSES EATEN. Kiev, Saturday. The Ukraine, the former granary of Europe, the land the poet Pushkin described as "breathing with abundance" is to-day in the throes of a food shortage recalling that which heset central Russia in the period of "war communism" and interventiom "Bread! ' bread! bread!" is the cry on all sides, both from the city population and, strangely, from the peasantry as well. Costly furniture, household articles, clothing — it all go'es cheap for a loaf of blaek bread. But bread is hard to get at any price. Nothing Left to Sow. The Ukraine, raore than any other region in the Soviet Union, is paying the prive exacted hy over-speedy collectivisation. The peasants were forced into collective farms with' all the speed and ruthlessness of which Moscow is capable. For two years this grim drive went on, but in that timo the peasant managed to discover what colleetivisation meant for him. Last year the peasants, both those inside and outside colleetive farms, were so thoroughly stripped of grain that nothing was left them for sowing, quite apart from enongh being left for them to eat while waiting for j the new harvest. Cattle and horses were eaten np rapidly during the past winter and spring, leaving no means of p'loughing. i Tractors are supposed to have taken , the place of animals on the farms, but 1 this is more theoretically than actual- j ly true. Brokexi Down Tractors. In the Kiev district alone there are lcnown to be between six and seven hundred broken-down tractors. The i result is that vast areas are left un- J ■ sown this year. J In the cities of the Ukraine only those employed directly in State organisations have bread ration cards. These cards entitle them to a little less than half a pound of bread a day. The rest of the city population and J all the peasantry are left to shift for themselves. This means they must seek bread at speculative prices out of sight of the watchful authorities. Bread has not j been given the freedom of the mar- i kets as have vegetables. Speculative prices mean about four rpubles (roughly 8s) a pound. Since wages have not been raised materially since the days when food prices were reasonable, it means that practically the entire earnings of every family go for bread— black bread. Grave Handicaps. The Ukraine used to eat mostly white bread, but this has hecome a forgotten luxury. When the vegetable season is over, ' grave hardships are expected. There are almost no provisions for cold storage of vegetables, and the prospects for bread are slim. For meats they are non-existent. Despite vigorous measures by. the ' authorities, the Russian autumn grain I sowing campaign is far behind sche- ' dule, states a Moscow correspondent. On September 20 autumn sowing ; was only 51 per cent, completed, with only nine days remaining to complete the schedules set by the authorities. In the Ukraine the situation is described as "bad."