SOVIET METHODS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 622, 29 August 1933, Page 5

SOVIET METHODS

(Press Assn.-

gRain exported while thousands starve to death APATHY OF DESPAIR

— By Telegraph — Copyright).

(Rec. 9.20 p.m.) London, August 28. The Daily Telegraph's special ob-sei-ver in the Northern Caucasus makes a striking revelation of the famine conditions. He says that bread has completely disapp'eared from thte dietry of the peasaht owner who is resigned to despair. Complete apathy characterises the people. The starving peasants are practically "prisoners in theii* oWn villages where tliey must remaiii. Insome villages iri the northern Caucasus, the population is almost extinct but the authorities do not acknowledge that famine exists although without doubt it is more acute than in 1921 when hundreds of thousands were saved by the American Relief Association. When the sufferers implored lielp, they were told that they could eat the bread which they had hidden away. The distribution if one pound of bread' daily would prevent death by starvation yet the Soviet Government has exported l,500j000 tons of grain of the 1932 crop. It may well be that the extermination of the Cossack population will be advantageous and desirable to the Government. One meets people with their legs swollen by starvation,' the correspondent states, and others so wealc that they iie about the roads awaiting death. Bodies are even seen in the streets of the towns and form a grave danger of epidemic. The Daily Express special correspondent says that 5,000,000 Russians are facing death from starvation owing to the tragic weakness of the Soviet second Five Year Plan. Managers and workers anxious to provide for their families, steal what they can; the pilfering has assumed such proportions that goods cannot be transported in Russia unless accompanied by armed guards. Tractors arrive on farms with the most valuable parts having been stolen on the road.