The Washington times., 1935-04-16
(Continued from Page u

~ 800
CONTINUED from Page -
I see the full handiwork Of the
famine. And he added:
"Six million people have per-
ished from hunger in our cOun.
try in 1929" Then he paused,
and repeated:
"Six million"
Why should this Ukrainian Of.
fetal be interested in conveying
that information to an American
visitor?
The answer is that the Ukrain.
ian Soviet, the Ukrainian national
lists, are constantly at odds with
Moscow.
The suggested trip cost me $50
a day for the use Of an automo-
bile. The Ukrainian official &C.
companied me. We had chauf
feur. The road was gray gravel
for stretches, and sticky yellow
clay for other stretches.
No people were to be seen in the
fields. On all sides were heaps
of grain, corn or wheat, and ordi
nary hay. Although it was late in
the fall the hay had not been
stored.
The grain had not been threshed
and the shocks, soaked through
and through. were already rotting.
Field Seemed Attire
It was morning. A vapor was
rising from the damp and putrid
stacks and heaps. It looked as if
the fields were on fire. There were
miles and miles and miles Of such
landscape.
My escort wanted m e to see
what the collectivized villages
looked like. His heart was rent by
the destruction of his people.
Did the world know?
The previous spring and sum.
mer, a curtain had been dropped
over certain provinces and regions
of Soviet Russia. Yet within Rus.
STA, it was impossible to conceal
the truth. It was impossible to
erect walls between the cities and
the villages. The very political in
tereSts. of the Soviet government
demanded that a cry should be
raised in the cities that the peas
ants were seeking to starve the
urban population.
The Communist cry was that
the peasants had refused to pillow
the fields, or to harvest the crops.
Factories were stopped and indus
trial workers were transformed
overnight into agricultural labor
erS.
Curtain Lifts
The city people, therefore. knew
only too well what was going on
in the country. But foreign cor
respondents were different mat
ter. 1t was vital to the Soviet gov.
eminent t h a t the outside world
should not be able to penetrate to
the countryside, and to hear the
voice of the people. And now the
curtain was lifting before me.
We were approaching the first
village. The entrance was in the
FORM of a crude gate made of
stocks and stripped tree branches.
The Soviet emblem, a star de-
signed from sticks, was over the
gate. In the center of the star,
under glass, was a photograph of
Lenin. Over it two red flags were
hanging so as to form a crooked
cross. One Of the flags was tat
tered.
A soldier wearing a long army
coat, with a rifle on his shoulder,
was seated near the gate, his head
partly sunk between his shoulders,
his face buried in the collar of
his coat.
He was doing. His bayonet,
rising over his huddled figure,
pointed straight upward.
An investigation was going on
when we arrived. Soldiers with
rifles slung across their shoulders
were standing at the doors of a
couple of cabins. Other soldiers,
with fixed bayonetS, were on an
army truck.
Damaged Tractors
The investigation had to do
with the damaged tractors. The
village had been collectivized, the
peasants had been forced to join
a Kolkhoz-a collective farm. And
now it was charged that the peas
ants had been "Sabotaging," a
high crime indeed.
Officials in boots and short
leather jackets were shopping
about accompanied by soldiers. All
the officials and soldiers carried
chunks of black bread. They had
brought their food supply along.
They knew that in the villages it
was impossible to obtain bread.
With bated breath I was watch.
| inc tho Soviet iVovoSfioo %orc oh