1954-10-23 — Page 7

Page

THE CHINA MAIL: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28

THIS IS THE STORY

THE REDS WOULD

NOT LET ME TELL..

T

HE Soviet consors used to chip-some- times hack-at my despatches out of Russia when I was there in Ол April, May, and June.

in- the whole they did an telligent and understandable Job as long as you remem- ber that Russian censorship is a matter of prestige. The Soviet censors are

out to make their country look as impressivo as possible, and that's that.

OUT OF the Soviet Union come reports of a bumper: harvest. This might seem good news for the Rutilons ---especially; when compared with the poor ́ grain harvests in the rest of Europe.

BUT paradoxically, Russia's good crops may produce embarrassment for her rulers. For they add to the headaches of a great agricultural crisis which has boen simmering in Kremlin-land for many months. • Can the grain be collected? Can it be properly stored? Can Moscow's planning take care of Nature's bounty?

RENE MacCOLL spent three months in the U.S.S.R. last spring. Hore he tells of his despatch which never got Rent. The despatch about... RUSSIA'S HARVEST.S

Just one article of mine got killed in its entirety,

Kazakhstan, in Yes, one complete despatch remote

Siberia, the from me to the Daily Ex- Western

in ita Western Urals and on the got stopped tracks by the Soviet censors.

Volga-great They couldn't let it through. farmlands, known Το be blunt--they scared of it.

press

CRISIS

were

Lower

new

the "Virgin Lands, were being tackled by hundreds of thousands of young workers.

cure

It was a concept of enor- mous Acope and great THAT despatch was about urgency. If it succeeded, it would, by its sheer magni- the agricultural crisis

drastically tude, which was confronting and problem which has always still confronts the U.S.S.R. bedevilled the Soviet Union. The basic facts of that article were largely gathered from what I had read in the about

One

the sombre of

facts Russia's the state of Soviet official newspapers, that

curzem agricultural situation is today.-37 years after such as Pravdn, Izvestia, the Bolsheviks seized power and Komsomol Pravda.

there are far fewer cattle in side Russia.than there were in the days of the Tsara.

For one of the peculiari- ties of the U.S.S.E. is that her censors sometimes re- fuse to allow foreign corres- pondents to quote what has appeared in the official Préss itself.

I described, how Soviet Russia had taken off on a terrific new plan to "up" her farm production.

With the death of Stalin the inheritan

of power in Russia felt that it was time for a new drive at the old problem. And year ago in 80 just over p September 1983, the great new plan was announced.

Its author: Nikia S. Krush- chev

(pronounce It "Kroosh Qft"), the able and dynamic How in First Secretary of the Central

In the late nutumn of a year ago the preliminary work was going forward briakly and the Boylet Preco sounded a happy rate. Then the raips started.

By RENE MacCOLL

Almost overnight the picture thangod. Angry admonitions begun to appear in the Russian Frees. And lottery wero publish- Asia I found myself. following, ca-loiters

which told

of by

chanoe, on the trail, of valuabio new form machinery Krushchev. left to

rust and decay amid the muck; of middle and delay,

I spent a day on a collective incompetence and lethargy. Lay- farm moar Alma Ata, Lhe There Ing conditions were appalling capital of Kazakhstan. cometimes only light tents. -* I was reverently shown the vory chale ire which Comrade In the rush to get the thing K. had sat. And was told by going, the most elementary the boss of the farm, with that arrangements had been over rather disarming naivete with locked. Farm workers had to which Russians often express Committeć of tho Communist form representative groups to themselves, that "we did all Party, and a No. 2

to travel 500 or 600 miles to the give the comrade our words of Premier Gcory!

Malenkov, nearest town to buy things like ronour as collective farmers ometimeA though ho

behaves

rørdles, methylated Epirit,

that from now on we shall do almont like a co-equal No. 1.

lamps, candle, bootlaces and botier. He was glad to hear

Im- His plan The Virgin Lands" all the other necessary or "New Lands" scheme, where. pedimenta of living. by millions of seres in the wilds cut- of Soviet Aria were to bo tivated by an army of roger young men and women, many with no previous experience on the land,

mån

Krushchov, tough, - self

white- confident, prematurely "Kadred.

announced that the previously unsatisfactory state of Soviet agriculture had been duo to "crude errors committed For by the over a mumber, years planning

authorities of the Stato," That, he doclared would all be changed. He plan would

usher in "an cra of plenty."

FAILURE

NSTEAD of the vast goals which had been proudly trumpeted in the Press, the papers were coming out with shocking tales of failure.

12"

When. In Petropavlovsk, a town on

of the borders *Kazakhstan and Siberia I asked

to visit and of the new, farma was told that it was impossible because recent heavy rains had made tire roads Impassable.

That may well have bee

roads true--and if the quite жего impassable I shuddered to think what the farms them- selves were like.

EXHAUSTED

Krushchev reacted. First he summoned to the. Kremlin thousands of key men from the M.T.S.-the

Tractor Motor Stations, which have always played a vital role in the set- up of the Soviet's agricultural economy. Krushchev gave them PETROPAVLOVSK,

serits of blistering lectures wretched, dismal place, is one His announced goals were and sent them packing. But of the reception centres for form aggeringven by Russian as the spring wore on a watcera coming out. to help in standards and were ΤΟ be disastrously late wet spring Kazakhstan. I saw them emerg achieved in a scant two or the plan still drooped. three years.

So there was nothing for it Krushchov backed up words but for Krushchev to take to

himself. (It was Oction which seemed the rond with equally impressive. Tractors noticeable that talenkov kept and other farm machines were markedly right out of this New rushed to remote Kazakhstan Landy. affair. It was Krush- and the other solected spots by chey's baby.)... the scorts of thousarida. Human beings too were shipped in.

Läst May as I flew Moscow into Soviet

ing from their trains, "ex- hearted, heavy-eyed, and un- shinyen, after long days and nights of travel from thousands of miles away.

They carried their belongings In

and cheap fibre suitcases were dirodlet to special rooms from in the squalid railway station Central

where they could tidy up. It was not, I would have said, a BOENG. or an atmosphere cal- culated to rekindle the pioneer- ing spirit.

HOW DO YOU FORM SCRIBBLER'S”

IN

THE T AND T?

N this concluding chap will be ter of the series, I power. will deal with the

the writer's will

most of his time on bigger items.

05

The Russians are tough and tenacious, · They may weather all this and pull it off trium-

LAST ARTICLE phantly in the end,

ON READING

But until things take a very noticeable turn for the better down on those farms, I would

HANDWRITING take a Emall bet in roubles

Sometimes you may come

that Comrade Krushchev inty be having his--pensive move- ments.

And that the Soviet

lotting lot of

across atent-shaped won't be

awful

The normal formed t-bar dot. This shows a very criti-stories. The t-bar that flashes off letters "" and "," There

the right

in reveals a nature that is in-cal mind which appreciates are so many formations of to

EXAMPLE 2 indicates herently careful and exact. clever and subtle humour. these that I will deal only with the most common ones vitality and rapid thinking All that the writer does will The sense of humour keeps and some of curious designs ability. The writer is in- be done in a painstaking the mind from becoming

too critical. quisitive and displays great way.

If the letter "t" is printed A circle used for the dot enthusiasm for anything

a creative and enthusiastic signifies an artistic flair. Whether a writer crosses that he likes.

mind is indicated.

The writer can generally put hist's and how he does

that crop up.

A t-bar that looks like a It is cf great interest to a

club going through the stem graphologist, as it greatly of the letter shows lack of assists him in analysing consideration for other handwriting.

people's feelings. The writer and may even be cruel

When you come across a brutal this depending on t-bar that is only on the the heaviness and thickness left hand side of the letter of the stroke. A violent tem- and does not go through it. You may us sure that the Per is evident if this stroke is placed at the right of the

writer is a reflective in-

relsome and sarcastic.

EXAMPLE TWO

Gillet

المسلم لها

foull Cook

opinions. It is extremely

elyThe stroke that flies above the sense of wit and the circles signify a desire

Whether an "is dotted his mind and hands towards sbom of the letter. If it cr not, and how it is dotted, some creative endeavour. dividual. He usually starts slopes down and looks like is another way of telling a This person yearns for aumething, and then an arrow, the writer is quar- writer's personality.

beautiful things and wants hesitates, and when. he.

An "" dot that is shaped to be in the finest sur- thinks that he will continue

like wavy lines, half circles, roundings. If the handwrit the job it is too late.. A jovial and happy dis- crescents or any other un- ing is plain and unadorned, is indicated by a usual form reveals a sense the artistic urge is chan position The t-bar that goes across bar that crosses the stem of humour. This person is nelled into a creative pro- the letter and points down in waves or curves. This always a gay companion, fession or hobby. When the wards discloses 1 very writer has a keen sense of and if the dots are even circle dots appear in hand- critical mind. and fixed humour and is full of fun. more unusual the keener is writing full of flourishes,

difficult to convince this

for artistic and creative life, person. If the t-bar looks the stem of the letter "When the dot is small, yet the hard work to carry as though it us been denotes enthusiasm and im-· stabbed across the stem in a agination and a tendency to light, and directly over the through this desire is not tler, the writer's serious always, backed up by ability attitude docs not let his or concentration.

EXAMPLE ONE-

starting changing

downward motion, stubborn reach nes and 'a' determined' dis position, are revealed.

humour.

run away with

deliberate A vivid imagination and

mind are that

Fam

and

far CL

eeNSOTA through ar agricultural

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