Evening Star Newspaper, May 28, 1940, Page 10

Acute Food Shorfage In Soviet Threatens Famine Next Winfer New ‘Squeeze Reform’ Starts Another Passive Revolt of Peasants By LELAND STOWE, Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent. BUCHAREST, May 28.—Soviet Russia is now in the hungriest pe- riod that its score, of millions of nonparty proletarians have experi- enced since the big famine of 1933. Nearly half of the Russian prov- inces are reliably reported to be in a condition of semi-famine, while acute hunger gnaws the inhabitants of large areas of many provinces. After 1938's extremely bad ha vests and last year’s very poor har- vest, the Soviets stand in the most urgent need of good crops this au- tumn, but the Kremlin's latest “squeeze reform” has precipitated another passive rebellion of peas- ants on thousands of collective farms. In addition, and for several pertinent reasons, this season’s sow- ing and planting is more than a month behind normal schedule. Accordingly—unless ‘the summer lingers exceptionally long—there exists the serious possibility that a second devastating famine may sweep the Soviet Union next win- ter. If the Soviet should get in- volved in war, in the meantime, such a development would appear almost inevitable. Even so, the menace of a future famine offers no guarantee of peace to Russia’s inarticulate masses. Against all logic and all ob- stacles, both human and mechan- ical, Dictator Josef V. Stalin may decide at any moment that Bessa- rabla must be taken and that Mos- cow must control the mouth of the Danube, but if the Kremlin takes this desperate gamble at any time in the next two months, millions of proletarians will pay a fearful price before the year ends. Aftermath of Finnish War. A pre-view of what this price can be was afforded by the Russo-Finn- ish War. It precipitated a serious food sHortage from which the coun- try as a whole has by no means re- covered. It killed off an unknown number of invaluable farm horses; it played havoc with normal indus- trial production. Combined with the huge mobilization provoked by the western war, the aggression against Finland took tens of thous- ands of skilled laborers and tech- nicians away from their posts, and most of them are still under arms. During the winter months, while the Finns resisted stubbornly, food became exceedingly scarce in Mos- cow and near-famine smote many provinces. Since March, however, the long queues of shabby, hungry Muscovites have diminished greatly in length. People can now get a little butter or cheese at the cost per pound of approximately half a day’s wages. Nevertheless, I en- countered numerous food queues on Moscow streets last week and scores of such queues were a common sight as people went to buy milk or tried to get their limited supply of fish. Under such circumstances, Mos- cow is now said to be comparatively well off, but conditions in half of the provinces are described as “frightful.” For three and one- half months food supplies every- where were sidetracked in order to ship weapons and food to the Red Army on the Karelian Isthmus. When the war ended and spring arrived, food transportations to the largest cities improved somewhat, but railroad transit still remains crippled and disorganized and countless millions in the towns and villages are the last to be served. Moscow May Risk All Sudden and stupendous intensifi- cation of the western war has now tremendously increased the possi- bility of the Soviet Union’s involve- ment. The Kremlin cannot pos- sibly afford to get involved with any big power, but the great war’s expansion at any moment may force the issue. Tomorrow or next week Stalin may find that it is now or never in regard to Bessarabia— or that the Nazis' hands at last have become so engaged against Great Britain and France that the Soviets have their only chance to establish new defense outposts far inside Rumania’s present frontier. Thus Moscow may feel forced to risk all, including unknown crops and future famine. This dgnger was clearly foreseen by Soviet leaders as far back as last December. At that time it was pro- posed to train 100,000 women to replace mobilized men as tractor op- erators. The People’s Commissar for Agriculture declared, “We must train successfully an enormous army of women capable of operating various machines by the spring of 1940 in order that no complications in the international situation may disturb the normal development of our agri- culture.” How many such women have been trained -has not been revealed but the normal course of Soviet agricul- ture has been considerably dislo- cated already by strictly internal causes. On the eve of June 1 more than half of the Ukranian bread basket remains unsown or unplowed. Hundreds and probably thousands of tractors are reported immobilized due to lack of spare parts and as many more tractors have not budged because fuel has not yet reached them. A great many collective farm villages which depend upon tractor stations are still extremely short of gasoline. Passive Resistance to Taxes. Finally, there is the peasants’ passive resistance to the new system of taxes and the quotas imposed by the Kremlin last autumn. This is described by observers as Stalin's latest “squeeze.” In part, last year’s bad crop was caused by the peas- ants’ refusal to cultivate all the available lands in order to avoid in- creased levies. Moscow retorted in this fashion: It shifted the taxes, or the state's share of crops pro- duced, from the amount actually cultivated to all the land in the col- lective farms, even including wooded acres which could not pos- sibly produce food supplies. Natur- ally, this raised the quota on acre- age to levels which were often im- possible and frequently destroyed all incentive for the peasants. In many districts the peasants are retaliating by refusing to sow more than a small portion of their collective farms. This land rebel- lion is said to be widespread and ac- eentuating. The discontent among Russian peasants was further heightened by another squeeze measure last au- tumn. Moscow decided the peas- ants were getting more than their own food requirements out of their ) B PARACHUTISTS WHO - TOOK FORT EBEN EMAEL, THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. ., TUESDAY, MAY 28, "1940. Jay Pierrepont Moffat Named U. S. Minister to Canada i BELGIUM— Some of the parachute troops who took Fort Eben Emael near Liege during the recent rapid German advance through Belgilum. censor. individual garden plots and potato patches. Consequently, the govern- ment reduced quite drastically the permissible dimensions of such plots. Even taxes on fruit trees were introduced. I was told that the tax on a few apple trees might amount to as much as a few thou- sand rubles—or the equivalent of 10 months wages for an average lab- orer in Soviet Russia. Even if this tax should be half that amount, it represents a crushing burden for the Russian peasantry with such taxes and with their garden plots cut to a bare subsistence level. Peasant sabotage against the regime has at- tained serious proportions. ‘The abnormally late Russian spring, the delayed sowing and the stubbornly bitter rebellion among the peasants on the collective farms, all point to more and more hunger inside the Soviet Union. They all confess the fact that the Red Army may yet have to fight with growing famine behind its back. If the Soviet should become involved in war in the near future such hos- tilities could not fail to accentuate the existing delay and reduction in crops. Many believe it would prob- ably assure large-scale famine for next winter. Peasants Barred From Moscow. In Moscow, you learn that the dictatorship will not allow peasants to enter the capital if they live beyond a radius of some 60 miles of 'the city. This restriction is de- signed to keep thousands of peas- ants from going to Moscow to buy bread. Violators of this rule face prison sentences of 5 to 10 years. Nevertheless, countless peasants trudge through the woods and fields, for 100 miles or more, to get into Moscow to buy bread for their vil- lages. Repeated incidents of this kind, sworn to by unimpeachable witnesses, illuminate sharply exist- ing conditions in the Russian ‘provinces. Through the winter food queues became 50 numerous and long in Moscow that the authorities issued another iron-clad decree. It pro- hibited any line being formed until 15 minutes before the shops opened for business. Hundreds of hungry citizens then took to forming their queues in nearby alleys or court- yards. When the 15-minute dead- line came they marched out en masse, & long line suddenly spring- ing out of nowhere. Often the po- lice descended in lorries, stuffed them with offenders and dumped them 10 miles out of the city to walk home and think things over en route. If two bad harvests and the Fin- nish war were sufficient to create such conditions in Moscow itself, one wonders what the latest peasant revolt, plus a possible third succes- sive poor harvest and plus the strain of further prolonged military precautions—perhaps including more hostilities—may combine to do to Soviet Russia’s food supplies next winter. More and more, the Soviets seem doomed to march close to the hunger line or to slip across into outright famine. ‘These conditions and these pros- pects cannot be reported in anything like their full amplitude from inside the Soviet Union because censor- ship has remained extremely severe ever since the Red Army invaded Finland. Censorship in Russia to- day is still that of a nation at war. For the past two months this war has not been on foreign soil; it is another kind of battle inside the home frontier, but it is nonetheless composed of certain elements of des- peration. It is difficult to forget the words of one authority who said to me, “If the Finns could have fought on for another two months there might well have occurred a major catas- trophe inside the Soviet Union.” The danger of such a catastrophe still hovers like a hobgoblin over the Kremlin and will certainly remain there s0 long as the European War continues—perhaps much longer, Roosevelt's Defense Program Hit by Gannett By the Associated Press. PORTLAND, Oreg., May 28.—Frank Gannett, Republican presidential | aspirant, last night called President Roosevelt's preparedness message to Congress and his Sunday “fireside chat” “outrageous promotion of hys- teria.” He told Oregon Republicans the Nation “should not trust the defense program to a President who by July will have spent $67,000,000,000 in the war against depression and has fafled to win 1t.” America was in “no danger of at- tack and not likely to be for a long, long time. We are not at war, and, under right leadership, we need not for LATEST NEWS The Night Final Star, containing the latest news of the day during these dramatic times, is de- livered every evening throughout the city and suburbs between 6 P.M. and 7 P.M. Telephone National 5000 for immediate delivery. by the EBERLY /p Pran Repairing o Renovizing o Modernizing Homes Things Are Different Now Time was when thought of rehabilitatin; the home was discouraging because o the lack of co-ordination. 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Berlin (Continued From First Page.) the surrender was “unconditional.” Observers here believe the chance for & strong French counterattack to break the trap from the south passed four or five days ago and saw nothing to halt Germany's lightning advance to the Channel. Berlin was jubilant at news of the surrender, and men in the street sang: “We Sail Against England.” However, there was no hint of what the Germans intended to do should they cut off the remainder of the trapped Allies. From Reims they would be in a position to drive southward across the line of com- munications of the entire Maginot Line and turn on Paris or make for England. King Leopold himself asked for an armistice, said an announcement issued by the high command from the headquarters of Fuehrer Hitler. The announcement stated King Leopold had “accepted the German Porch Rocker Solid maple frame, rattan woven seat. Natural varnish fin- ish. Passed by German -Wide World Photo. demand of unconditional capitula- tion.” Opposed by Government. Later a second announcement was {ssued stating that the Belgian King had reached his decision against the wishes of the majority of his government, which is sitting in Paris. The Belgian government was charged with being chiefly re- sponsible for the “catastrophe,” ‘and it was sald it still seemed inclined to obey orders of “English-French employers.” Authorized quarters said the Allies made an air raid on Dusseldorf last night. No information was available immediately on the extent of the damage. The raid was described, however, as “nothing new.” “It happens practically every night,” in the border region, a spokesman said. 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At & moment when events in Eu- rope were giving Canada a height- ened importance as a neighbor of the United States, Mr. Roosevelt nominated Mr. Moffat yesterday to succeed James H. R. Cromwell. Mr. Cromwell, whose pro-ally ut- terances while Minister at Ottawa brought a public rebuke from Secre-~ tary Hull, resigned last week to accept the Democratic nomination for Senator from New Jersey. Mr. Moffat, a career diplomat for more than 20 years, has been chief of the State Department’s European Division since 1937. In that capacity he accompanied Sumner Welles to Europe a few months ago on the ;lctt-flndin‘ mission for the Presi- len Sixth Generation of Diplomats. Mr. Moffat represents the sixth generation of his family to be in the diplomatic service. His forebear, John Jay, was America’s first Sec- retary of State. His wife is the daughter of Joseph Drew, Ambas- sador to Japan. Born at Rye, N. Y., 43 years ago, Mr. Moffat attended Harvard Uni- versity. In 1917 he became private secretary to the American Minister at The Hague. Later assignments took him to Warsaw during the Bolshevik invasion, to Tokio during the earthquake, to Turkey in time to see the republic declared, to Switzerland for the . Disarmament Conference, and to Australia. Mr. Moffatt’s nomination was re- ceived with satisfaction in the Canadian capital last night. Par- ticular significance was attached to the fact that he was a career diplomat of wide experience. Canada in Vital Role. The prime importance of Canada to-the United States is regarded by informed observers as emphasized by | the following points: 1.-The combined: export and im- JAY PIERREPONT MOFFAT. ~—Harris-Ewing Photo. port trade of the United States with Canada is larger than with any other nation. 2. Canada at war is turning into a huge manufacturing plant and training center for the British Isles, particularly in aviation. 3. There has been speculation as to whether the British government, it Britain were overrun by Germany, would transfer itself to Ottawa. 4. Some have speculated over the possible transfer of the British fleet to Canada if Britain is defeated in Europe. 5. President Roosevelt on two oc- casions has brought Canada clearly within the Monroe Doctrine by promising that the people of the United States would not stand idly by if any foreign empire threatened to dominate Canadian soil. George Lamaze Dies PHILADELPHIA, May 28 (®)— George Lamaze, 53, nationally= known chef and executive vice pres- ident of the Warwick Hotel, died ‘yesterday of & heart ailment. was a native of Rhiems, France. THE HUB—*‘Value-Center’’ of Washington! 'Complete 10=Piece MAPLE He The decorator’s choice for a high styled, lasting erate pr‘!ce. Includes charming bed, uality boudoir setting at a mod- chest and choice of dresser or vanity, in honey tone maple finished tupelo wood . . . Simmons coil spring, komfy mattress, two feather pillows and a cricket chair. No Money Down! Easy Terms! Americanism Is Answer To 'Fifth Column,” Says Dies By the Associated Press. JAMESTOWN, N. Y., May 28.— Adherence to the principles of American freedom is a, potent weapon in fighting “fifth column” activities, says Representatiye Mare tin Dies, Democrat, of Texas, chair~ man of the House Committee Inves- tigating in-American Activities. Mr. Dies told a Rotary Club audi- ence last night “no arms can sub- due America” as long as Americans adhere to the principles of demo- cratic freedom. Taking as his theme “Americans must be free,” he urged “strict en- forcement of the laws we now have without fear or favor—with addi- tional legislation necessary—if we are to deal with the ‘Aifth eolumn’ successfully.” “In all crises,” he said, “people have turned to God for help. Amer- ica was born out of that faith. Our democracy rests on the principles of freedom, and if you people are determined to adhere to those prin- ciples, then no arms can subdue America.” Nazis Transfer Giraud From Castle to Fort By the Associated Press. BERLIN, May 28—“Special fa- cilities” to captive British and French officers will “now cease,” German authorities announced to- day, as a result of reports that German officers captured by the Allies “are extremely badly treated.” The announcement said thav Prench Gen. Henrl Giraud, cap- tured in the battle of the Meuse, heretofore accommodated in a cas- tle, now has been transferred to a fortress in Western Germany. He will be given a French colonial sol= dier instead of a German for an orderly. “The future treatment of French officers will depend on treatment of German officers who are prison= ers of war in French hands,” the announcement concluded. e e S S FALSE TEETH REPAIRED WHILE YOU WAIT ROBT B. SCOTT. DENTAL ‘TECR 605 14b at F. 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