J.D.B. News Letter

There are many Bolshevik leaders who frankly declare that the country is passing through the worst economic crisis it has had to face since the panic year of 1922. They also allow that a famine is within the bounds of possibility, but are hopeful the country may just manage to weather the storm, always provided the machinery of distribution is equal to moving stocks from one district where there is plenty to those where there is want, Sir Ellis Ashmead-Bartlert, the famous war-correspondent, writes in an article in the “Daily Telegraph” today, on the situation in Russia.

The reasons for the shortage of cereals, he says, are as follows: “There was a failure of crops in certain districts in the Ukraine, which has had a most disastrous effect, as it restricted the export of grain, which was needed to balance the imports of manufactured goods. The Commissar of Finance was thus faced with a deficit in the National Budget. To prevent this, enormous stocks of butter, cheese, milk and other dairy produce were exported last year, which helped to balance the budget, but have left a corresponding gap in the supplies for home consumption. The mass of the population must now do without them. Difficulties have been increased by a failure in the potato crop. As a set-off to the losses in Russia proper, there was a bumper harvest throughout the grain-producing regions of the East. Thus, if only sufficient grain can be moved southwest from Siberia and locally distributed in the regions where want prevails, it will be possible to pull through until the next harvest. But this is highly problematical. There is only a single line from Siberia, and there are few regional branch lines. The railway is, therefore, sorely taxed to handle the supplies needed for the big cities and regions threatened with famine, the writer says.

UKRAINE SAID TO HAVE 300 MILLION POODS OF WHEAT SHORTAGE

“In the Ukraine alone there is said to be a shortage of 300,000,000 poods of wheat (a pood is about 36 lbs. avoirdupois), and the government has only been able to afford to purchase 40,000,000 poods from abroad. I am told that the capacity of the Siberian Railroad, owing to the shortage of rolling stock, is insufficient. Evey vehicle on two wheels has been mobilized.

“The government does all in its power to prevent a shortage in Moscow and Leningrad, as it is essential to keep the industrial population – the backbone of the Communist party – content, but this is no easy task. The Commissars responsible say to you openly: ‘We are selfish, and are obliged to be so. Whatever else happens, we shall keep enough grain in (Continued on Page 4)

Moscow and Leningrad. But even before I left Moscow, bread queues had started, and there had been several mild riots among the workers. This shortage was said to have arisen because the government was obliged to send a large quantity of wheat into the Kaluga district, which was faced with a crisis. The government spokesmen explained it otherwise. They declared that it was due to a failure to supply the local bakeries in time.

“Your first impression, therefore, on entering Moscow, is that a horrible famine is already sweeping through the land, but you must be careful to remember that everything is relative, and that these scenes of misery, however heart-breaking to the foreign observer, do not constitute a state of famine in Russia, either in the eyes of the people or of the government. A famine to the Russian means absolute starvation, when roots are devoured and thousands perish. We can only hope things will not come to this pitch, but it would require a bold prophet to say they will not, in some districts,” Sir Ellis writes.

SPECTRE OF FAMINE

“When the only ambition of ninetenths of the population is to obtain enough food to keep body and soul together,” Sir Ellis says, “the hours wasted in obtaining, or failing to obtain, what is sought for become the ordinary daily occupation. The search for food is a profession in Russia which is followed by millions as a natural way in which to pass their lives.

“If I were asked to prophesy, I would say that there is a great shortage of what we consider the necessities of life throughout Russia this winter; that there will be local famines involving many deaths in some parts, but that there will not be a general devastation of whole districts, as has often happened in the past.

“A change in the government would be a national disaster for the next few months. All the reins are now in skilled hands, the most qualified to distribute the resources of the country. That the foolish economic policy of the distributors is largely responsible for the shortage is in the face of a national disaster involving millions of innocents, beside the point,” Sir Ellis declares.