New Britain herald., 1930-04-28
SOVIET RAILROAD LINE OPENS TODAY
1,W0 Mile System Through
 Bleak Country Ready

Ainabulak, kazakstan Soviet Re public, April 2S R}-Ovcr lifcless deserts. trackless plains and people less mountain-lands, once traVcrsc1 by Alexander the Great and Tanner lane the Conqueror, the Soviet gov ernmcnt today opened a modern 1,700- -mile-long railroad of its own construction, connecting the present Central Asia railroad at Aris, Uz- bekistan, with the breat TrarisSi- berian railway at Novosibirsk.
 The new road changes the. whole face of middle Asia and transforms kazakstan, which is the largcs. autonomous republic within the So- viet federation, into region Of great potential economic signih- canoe.
 Ono Of Greatest Tasks Next to the huge Dnieperstrov hydro- electric plant on the Dniepc.' river, which is being supervised by Colonel Hugh L. Cooper, noted en- sineer of New York, this new rail- 'otN' " iiiNi hto OuilL Cly NilIl native labor and without foreign technical or financial assistance, is the greatest single mechanical achievement of the communist gov ernmcnt since it came into power twelve years ago. It cost s10O, | 900 and it's construction occupied four years.
 At the dedicatory ceremonies and celebrations, which will occupy sev- ! eral days, were Jan Rudzutak, Soviet commissar of railroads, a number Of other high government officials, and large group of American and for clgn correspondents, a special train having taken them over the 5000 mile Journey from Moscow. It was the firct time in the history of Rus sia that so many foreigners wefe ad- mitted into the forbidden gates of Turkestan, the whole of Asiatic Rus sia having previously been closed to foreigners, both by the czarist gov crnment and tho Soviet regime, on account of it's proximity to the Chinese, Afghan and Indian borders.
 Helps Distribute Wheat
 The most vital importance of the new railway rests in the fact that 1t will enable the government to sup ply to the primitive and undeveloped areas of Turkestan great quantities of wheat at low prices from the rich granaries of Siberia, and also unlim- tied supplies of timber from the vast Siberian forests. Turkestan will thus be freed from the necessity of rais- ing wheat itself and will be able in consequence to enlarge it's present cotton growing territories. The So- viet government expects this expan- sion of the cotton growing fields to make the Soviet union independent of the United States and Egypt for it's cotton supply, on which in the past it had spent more than s10,- 0O0,000 annually.
 The government will also be able 10 export abroad the wheat which it now sends to Turkestan from the Eolga, tho Ukraine and the North Caucasus, when the s250, 900, ,000 ir- rigation works in Turkestan which arc being supervised by Arthur Pow ell Davis, of Oakland. Cal, former | ly head of the United States reclama- ton service, are completed. the So- viet government expects even to eX- port cotton.
 New Settlements Start
 Already scores of new settlements have sprung into life along the Turksib railroad, with schools, hos pitfalls and workmens homes dis placing the Nomadic squatters an,l supplanting the old patriarchal life Of the dwellers with modern com munist forms Of government.
 As the new line parallels the tChinese frontier for a distance Of about TOO miles, it also has great military and strategic importance, but it is an economic and industrial sense that the railroad will be of greatest value to the Soviet govern ment and the millions of inhabitants of Turkestan. The line not only unites Siberia with Central Asia, but brings the Soviet Union within reach of the great western Chinese markets which heretofore remained