The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1921. AN APPALLING TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 281, 25 November 1921, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1921. AN APPALLING TRAGEDY.

For the cause the* lacks asxistanoe. For the wrong that needs resiatantK, For the future in the distance, And the good that vets tan do.

To those who have studied the evidence or the Russian famine, the dreadful picture, of suffering, disease, and death that Sir Philip Oibbs is drawing of conditions in the'famine areas is not neces-

sary for realisation of the fullness and horror of the tragedy. Sir Philip, however, boars an honoured and world-wide reputation as an investigator, and perhaps then? will be people who, having hitherto been suspicious of the accounts , of the famine, will take his testimony as h'nal. Doubts have been cast on the seriousness of the famine by Bolshevik agents and sympathisers in Australasia. As a matter of fact, not only Dr. Nansen ; and numerous correspondents in Russia, but the Soviet Press, testify to the extent and gravity of the visitation. Nansen told the League of Nations two months ago, after his visit to Russia, that twenty millions of Russian peasants of all ages were threatened with death from hunger and exposure during the next few months. He foresaw what he described as '"the jp-eatest horror ill history." It is always difficult for the human mind to grasp the extent of a catastrophe like this. To-day it is stunned by the noise of immensities and exaggerations. It is not only that the last few years have in so many directions established ne«- records of death and destruction, but that we are suffering now from a long-continued abuse of language. "The written word," says the "Manchester Guardian," in some comment on the difficulty of getting people to realise what the famine means, "has been so debauched and degraded for generations by the application of sounding superlatives to trivialities that when a tragedy like this of 'Russia's comes all the resources of emphasis have long ago been thrown away, and the minds of readers wearied and hardened and led to regard new appeals to public I emotion as so much more rain that may safely be left to patter on the roof." Perhaps it may help people to realise what this famine threatens for Russia to quote the "Guardian's" estimate that the deaths caused by it are likely to be about three times as numerous as the total deaths in all the armies on both sides during the Great War. This by no means exhausts the possibilitiea. The pestilence that Sir Phillip Gibls describes as following in the track of hunger may sweep through Russia and cut swathes in Western Europe. What is being done to cope with this gigantic disaster? Apparently very little in comparison with the need. The Soviet Government is reported by observers on the spot to bo doing what it can to meet the situation that .by its own folly it lifts helped to create, but it is hampered by lack of food and lack of transport. It lias appealed to the world, but unfortunately the world is resentful and bus-! picious. and with monumental tactlessness tho Moscow Communists, in the words of the "Spectator," issue one day a world-wide nppeal for assistance, and the next "a manifesto reviling and insulting the very people whom they have invited to open their pockets." They ask for help, but they accuse Western Capital "of offering rts services in order to choke i tho Soviet Government."' Tactlessness, i however, is not a. monopoly of Moscow. ; It was a mistake of the Allies to appoint as head of an investigating commission the man who had been French Ambassador in Petrograd during this Revolution and was suspected by tlic Boleheviks of anti-Bolshevik intrigue. Moscow at once declared that tlie appointment discredited the commission. Western people are willing to give, but many of the!*) aro afraid that gifts will not reach the victims, but will be used to feed the Red army and bolster up the Red tyranny, a, point on which Russia has not satisfied the Western Governments. H may be mentioned, however, that it, ia asserted by a correspondent in Russia that the relief goods sent by the Society of Friends are carried in sealed trucks and opened by English agents. The most seriovis feature of the relief, problem, however, is the refusal of the Western Powers to make money or credit grants to Russia. Nansen aeked the League of Rations for only five millions, which ie a mere fraction o f what the Allies spent in helping Kolchalc and Denikin to overthrow the Soviet Government, and he pointed out that there was an abundant surplus of grain in Nortk and South America, and plenty of idle shipping. The Powers refused, and haJ-d things are being said in the English Liberal Press about that refusal. Among all tlie delegates to the Leagui*, who acted under the Government's instructions, only Lord Robert Cecil supported Nansen. The Allies have the excuse, that Moscow I would not agree to the terms on which they offered help, but it is to be feared that, political considerations have weighed against humanitarian. It is reported that recognition of Rueeian debts was made a condition of giving help, c must say that after making every allowance for the folly, perversity, and doubledealing of the Moscow Government, the whole handling of the queetion does not seem to ub to reflect much credit on Western Europe. The call is surely one that rises above considerations of politics and finance. These starving millions had nothing to

do with the establishment of the tyranny that is ruining Russia, and they should not \>e held responsible for its sins. Relief is left to private organisations, which, it is true, have received a substantial gift in stores from the British Government. The publics of 'Britain and America—we have no information about other countries —are giving freely to the relief funds, and groups of heroic men and women are distributing the results in the famine areas. The relief, however, is only a thin trickle in a huge desert.