Evening star. [volume], May 28, 1940, Page A-10, Image 10

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
Acute Food Shortage
In Soviet Threatens
Famine Next Winter
New 'Squeeze Reform'
Starts Another Passive
Revolt of Peasants
By LELAND STOWE,
Chlc« go D»lly New* Forelyn 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 har
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 addiiion, 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
rabia 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 danger 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 sucn women nave Deen
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 peasant:
are retaliating by refusing to so*
more than a small portion of theiz
collective farms. This land rebel
lion is said to be widespread and ac
centuating.
The discontent among Russiar
peasants was further heightened by
another squeeze measure last au
tumn. Moscow decided the peas
ants were getting more than theii
Own food requirements out of theii
PARACHUTISTS WHO TOOK FORT EBEN EMAEL, BELGIUM—
Some of the parachute troops who took Fort Eben Emael near
Liege during the recent rapid German advance through Belgium.
These men were specially selected from the highly trained para
chute corps for the assault on this fort. Passed by German
censor._ —Wide World Photo.
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 so 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, a 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 so 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 $87,000,000,000 in the
war against depression and has
failed to win it.”
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.
Repairing • Renovizing • Modernizing Homes
Things Are Different
Now
Time was when thought of rehabilitating
the home was discouraging because of
the lack of co-ordination. To make even
minor changes required bringing into
the work many different minds and
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Now the most elaborate renovizing or
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Berlin
(Continued From First Page.)
the surrender was '‘unconditional.*
Observers here believe the chance
for a 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 ofT 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 lor
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
demand of unconditional capitula
tion.”
Opposed by Government.
Later a second announcement was
Issued 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 said 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 nsw.”
“It happens practically every
night,” in the border region, a
spokesman said.
High Official Tests Baking
Brazil's Minister of Agriculture
personally tested the baking of bread
with mixed flour and was pleased
with the results.
Jay Pierrepont Moffat Named
U. S. Minister to Canada
Career Diplomat for
Two Decades Will
Succeed Cromwell
Br the Artoclited Preu.
Jay Fierrepont Moffat, descendant
of the country’s first Secretary of
State and one of Secretary Hull's
key assistants, Is President Roose
velt’s choice for Minister to Canada.
At a 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 8tate Department's European
Division since 1937. In that capacity
he accompanied 8umner Welles to
Europe a few months ago on the
fact-finding mission for the Presi
dent.
Sixth Generation of Diplomat*.
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.
Bom 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,
if 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 a heart ailment. He
was a native of Rhiems, France.
Americanism Is Answer
To'Fifth Column,’Says Dies
Br 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 Representative Mar
tin Dies, Democrat, of Texas, chair
man of the House Committee Inves
tigating un-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 ‘fifth column’
successfully.”
“In all crises,” he said, “people
have turned to God for help. Amer
ica was bom out of that faith. Our
democracy rests cm 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
Br the Aisoclited 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 that
French Gen. Henri 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.
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