BRITISH FASCISTS AND RUSSIAN BUTTER
HOUSE OF COMMONS GETS A SHOCK
PROBABLY most of the Conservative Members of Parliament receive a circular which emanates from their party headquarters giving useful information about Soviet activities. But whether they ever read it is quite another matter!
A recent issue contained the following quotation from the Russian official newspaper Pravda:—
“The Soviet Farm Molcchnoye” is one of the largest industrial combines included in the Butter Trust… The main task of this gigantic milk factory is to obtain the highest possible production for the market The Soviet farm, however, is not a good example of organization of labour, but, on the contrary, works less successfully than Collective farms. The cattle are fed on a starvation ration… The workers of the Soviet farm drive out the cattle at 8 a.m., and bring them in at 8 p.m…. What does the cattle-yard of the Soviet farm represent? Certainly not a milk- centre, for the sheds are small and dirty. In the third yard the cows stand knee deep in mud. This makes milking very difficult and spoils the milk. The calves are also kept in very dirty sheds. They are often fed on sour and unsterilized milk from tubercular cows… The production of this factory is transported on the same vans as- Benzine and Kerosine, of which the butter often acquires the smell.”
Prompt Fascist Action
The Publicity Department at General Headquarters immediately wrote to a large number of members of Parliament, including the Prime Minister, the Minister of Health, and the Secretary of State for India, urging that steps should be- taken at once to prevent an epidemic arising from this contaminated butter.