Children To Catch Grain Thieves FRONM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT RIGA, AUG. 10 It is announced in Moscow that the Government has decided to mobilize children throughout the countryside for a great campaign against " grain barbers." In pursuance of this decision instructions were published to-day for organizing children into groups. The experiment has already been tried for several weeks in some districts, especi- ally the North Caucasus. The packs are composed of about a dozen children, mostly aged between nine and 13, armed with sticks, wearing special badges. and led by trained urban members of the Union of Young Communists. The authorities award food and clothing as prizes for the capture of " grain barbers," and the Soviet Press publishes the names and portraits of the most successful children. Pravda gives a long description of the exploits of these "child heroes." with the names of many of the captured "grain barbers," mostlv women, and de- scribes how the children hunted them down. Children thus organized, and backed by the punitive authorities, Pr-avda says, exert a healthy influence on their parents, as they show extraordinary enthusiasm for their new task, starting the hunt before sunrise and continuing it until nightfall. The -work is not without danger, for "KKulak-minded" peasants will often beat them and some- times kill them, but so far their zest gener- ally remains unabated, thanks to the encouragement of the political police. Whether these " child packs " will prove effective for long appears doubtful. The Soviet Press admits that they are pre- eminently useful auxiliaries to the regular grain police, who are unable to cope with the ubiquitous grain stealers this year. The most insidious thieves are apparently the reapers themselves, who rub out the ears while working in the fields and carry the grain home in their pockets. Such pilfer- ing gives an idea of the intensity of the food distress in the rich grain districts from the Volga to the Ukraine. CHILDREN TO CATCH GRAIN THIEVES A SOVIET EXPERIMENT