Correspondence
A LETTER FROM MOSCOW. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—The acceptance by Poland and Rumania of the Soviet proposal to sign an appendix to the Kellogg Peace Pact caused great satisfaction in Moscow. It is regarded here as the first real success of the pacifist policy which the Soviet, Government has tried to pursue and, it is hoped, may have a favourable effect abroad, not only in Europe but also in the United States.
It has been a matter of surprise and dismay to Soviet statesmen to find their proposals for disarmament regarded with so much distrust by foreign powers. They feel that it is obvious that this country has the most cogent reasons to avoid war. They are engaged upon the prodigious task of socializing and industrializing the most backward nation in Europe, still suffering from the ravages of revolution and civil war, greatly lacking competent technicians, and native or 'foreign capital. On the other hand the potential wealth of Russia is so vast that it is not surprising to find a growing tendency on the part of the Ktemlin to look for assistance in Russia's development to the United States, which has success- fully solved the same economic and territorial problems as now face the Soviet. No close observer of Russian affairs can fail to connect the visit to Moscow last autumn of Mr. Charles Dewey, former assistant secretary to the American Treasury Department and present " Advisor " to the Bank of Poland, with Mr. Litvinoff's proposal to supplement the Kellogg Pact. If one is right in supposing thatithe original pact was in a sense a warning by the great new creditor power that its debtors should not' waste their assets in mutual hostilities, it is not irrational to conclude that a supplementary agreement in Eastern Europe might be welcomed by the masters of Wall Street.
There is some possibility that the signature of the Pact with Poland may be followed by practical consequences in the shape co': negotiations for a Russo-Polish commercial treaty. Your corr.pondent is aware that Mr. Dewey has emphasized, both here and in Warsaw, the importance of such a treaty as a necessary step to the establishment of normal friendly relations, Some anxiety was at first felt here as to the attitude of Germany. More .recently Moscow has come to believe that Germany would welcome any factor that would make for peace and for the further developthent of Russian cOmmeree. Your correspondent received confirmation of this in Berlin, during the month of January, where the opinion was expressed constantly that Germany had nothing to lose and much to gain by the removal of friction between Poland and the Soviet, and by any expansion of the Russian market that would result from an increase of American, or English, enterprise in this iiountik. A much more' friendly tone is now evident in Russo-German relationi than was the ease a few months ago. This is perhaps not entirely unconnected, on the German side, with the Reparations Conference, but may also be attributed to the fact that the Soviet has paid in gold the instalments amounting to some three million pounds sterling which have fallen due on account of the three hundred million macs Reich-assisted credit. There was some anxiety on this subject in Berlin, and it is true that the payments put a heavy strain on Soviet resources. The rouble, artificially maintained at par within the Soviet Union (without, it is true, any serious increase in prices but with the inevitable scarcity of manufactured goods which accompanies inflation, however disguised) now stands cm the " Black Bourse " of Berlin at
85 pfennings, considerably less than half its nominal value. —
The grain situation, t ,oo, Rtissia, is' unsatisfactory. The State grain collections," which supply bread for the urban centres and the Red Army, were at the' end of January less than 250,000 metric tons higher than at the same period of 1928, when the shortage was regarded as so serious that it was necessary to resort to measures not far removed from the policy of the Militant Communist period of 1918-21. These extraordinary measures," as they were called, roused such discontent amongst the peasants that they were formally abandoned in -July, and Stalin, the' General Secretary of the Communist Party, and Rykof, President of the Council of Commissars, publicly stated that they would not be repeated. An attempt is being made at present to stimulate the. grain collections by increasing the supply of manufactured goods to the villages, but their cost is so great in proportion to the price of grain and their quantity so limited in proportion to the demand, that no great hopes are justified. It will clearly be necessary to ration the urban centres. Bread cards have already been introduced in Leningrad, Odessa, and Nijninov-. gorod, and will be issued in Moscow within a short time. There are signs, however, that a modification in the Kremlin's agrarian policy is not impossible. In the upper ranks of the Communist Party some criticism has been directed against the attempt to hurry rural socialization, and it is significant that Mr. Rykof, in a recent speech before a meeting of agron- omic experts, declared that although the government regarded rural socialization as a necessary adjunct to urban socialization, and as an integral part of its policy, nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that the individual peasant producer must con- tinue for some time " to play a decisive role " in the production of grain. He went on to announce a number of concessions, to the peasants, chiefly in the form' of reductiOn of taxes- and the 'removal of certain restrictions.
The Trotski deportation affair, which has roused so much comment and speculation abroad, excited little interest in Russia, save in .a very limited circle. No mention of the matter has been made in the Press here, and the " man in the street" is not only ignorant of the whole case, but also indifferent.; Briefly the facts are as follows : The Turkish Government granted, by request, a transit visa which, to Soviet citizens, allows a fortnight's stay on Turkish soil. For other nation- alities the stay is limited to eight days. Germany, however, refused to give Trotski a permi,, de sdour. . He, therefore, did not leave Russia. The decision to allow him to go abroad, or. deport him, as the case may be, is in full accordance with Leninist traditions.
During the first week of February Moscow experienced the coldest weather recorded in the last fifty years, with temper- atures more than forty degrees below zero. Tramway com- munication was interrupted by the great cold, and an order was issued that school children below the age of sixteen might remain at home owing to numerous cases of frostbite. A reach of the Moscow river near the old Kamemn Most (stone bridge) where the water runs too rapidly to freeze, presents a remarkable spectacle. The temperature of the air is so much lower than that of the water that great clouds of steam rise continually, as if the water were boiling. To one standing on this bridge the Kremlin towers gleam in the brilliant sunshine behind the clouds of steam like a palace of faery legend.—I
am, Sir, &c., YOUR Moscow CORRESPONDENT.
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