UNCLE GIVE US BREAD
By Arne Strom
Arne Strom, a Danish poultry expert, accompanied by his wife and small son, went as adviser to a large collective poultry-farm a day's journey from Moscow. He was delighted to have an opportunity of working- under a government which he admired, and arrived in Russia. " full of hope and courage " and stayed there a year. He calls his account of that year (:'rude Give IT Jf Dread (Allen and 1.nwin, 7s. Gd.) because he heard that sentence oftener than any other. If he had called it " The Truth About Russia " one would not have believed of it, but dismissed it as crude anti-Soviet propaganda. As it is, one is inclined to think that Mr. Strom was very unfortunate, or else that previous visitors were very fortunate in their experiences, for there can surely be -nothing more revolting in print than his description of conditions on a col- lective poultry fans. Disease, vermin and filth seemed to be the lot of every living creature, workers and stock alike. In fact, Mr. Strom's first recommendation was that the whole stock of 30,000 birds be slaughtered. He found the authorities indifferent, amused, or full of promises which they never kept. The standard of life among the peasants he found unbelievably low. On the farm they sometimes went for weeks without butter, salt or potatoes, eating nothing but eggs and black bread. Four-fifths of the population of Russia work on collective farms. One can only hope, for the sake of the peasants whom Mr. Strom admires so much, that he is describing the worst one of them all.
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