The problem of inducing the peasants to feed the towns is one which Russia shares with Central Europe, and from what one hears Russia has been less unsuccessful than some other countries in dealing with this problem.  For the Soviet Government, the problem is mainly concentrated in Moscow and Petrograd; the other towns are not very large, and are mostly in the centre of rich agricultural districts.  It is true that in the North even the rural population normally depends upon food from more southerly districts; but the northern population is small.  It is commonly said that the problem of feeding Moscow and Petrograd is a transport problem, but I think this is only partially true.  There is, of course, a grave deficiency of rolling-stock, especially of locomotives in good repair.  But Moscow is surrounded by very good land.  In the course of a day’s motoring in the neighbourhood, I saw enough cows to supply milk to the whole child population of Moscow, although what I had come to see was children’s sanatoria, not farms.  All kinds of food can be bought in the market at high prices.  I travelled over a considerable extent of Russian railways, and saw a fair number of goods trains.  For all these reasons, I feel convinced that the share of the transport problem in the food difficulties has been exaggerated.  Of course transport plays a larger part in the shortage in Petrograd than in Moscow, because food comes mainly from south of Moscow.  In Petrograd, most of the people one sees in the streets show obvious signs of under-feeding.  In Moscow, the visible signs are much less frequent, but there is no doubt that under-feeding, though not actual starvation, is nearly universal.

The Government supplies rations to every one who works in the towns at a very low fixed price.  The official theory is that the Government has a monopoly of the food and that the rations are sufficient to sustain life.  The fact is that the rations are not sufficient, and that they are only a portion of the food supply of Moscow.  Moreover, people complain, I do not know how truly, that the rations are delivered irregularly; some say, about every other day.  Under these circumstances, almost everybody, rich or poor, buys food in the market, where it costs about fifty times the fixed Government price.  A pound of butter costs about a month’s wages.  In order to be able to afford extra food, people adopt various expedients.  Some do additional work, at extra rates, after their official day’s work is over.  For, though there is supposed to be by law an eight-hours day, extended to ten in certain vital industries, the wage paid for it is not a living wage, and there is nothing to prevent a man from undertaking other work in his spare time.  But the usual resource is what is called “speculation,” i.e., buying and selling.  Some person formerly rich sells clothes or furniture or jewellery in return for food; the buyer sells again at an enhanced price, and so on through perhaps twenty hands, until a final