ACTIVITY IN RUSSIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1940, Page 5

ACTIVITY IN RUSSIA

VAST STIR OF MILITARY PREPARATION REPORTED BY BRITISH CORRESPONDENT. SIR S. CRIPPS AND M MOLOTOV. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July 12. A correspondent of the British United Press, after a journey across Russia, reports that Russia is mobilising every ounce of her vast resources from the Baltic to Siberia in order to reach her maximum military strength and maintain her strategic positions on all fronts. Enormous, streams of tanks and troops are moving to the Baltic, and there is great activity on the TransSiberian railway, the endless freight traffic mainly carrying military supplies. Basic food seems to be plentiful, though there is a shortage of consumer goods. Moscow is crowded with trade delegations, most of which are German. The Germans are constantly under official surveillance. They do not attempt to conceal their hostility toward Russia, while the Russians have plainly indicated that their activity in the Baltic and Rumania was a defensive move against Germany. Relations between the British Ambassador, Sir Stafford Cripps, and the Soviet Foreign Minister, M Molotov, are reported to be most cordial. INDUSTRIAL DEFECTS THREATS OF PUNITIVE ACTION. MOSCOW, July 13. The radio, commenting on heavy penalties which the Soviet is imposing for the manufacture of defective goods, says: “The low quality of the output of many branches of Soviet industry frequently impairs the national defence. Machine tools, chromium steel and other steel alloys, cotton goods and synthetic fibres are suffering from poor quality. Tractors sometimes are delivered with a leak in their petrol tanks skilfully covered with paint. A Moscow factory has been turning out watches which do not go, alarm clocks which will not ring. “The criminal neglect of quality by many industrial managers cannot be tolerated. Their place is gaol.”