TRAGEDY OF AN EXODUS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 6 December 1924, Page 12

TRAGEDY OF AN EXODUS.

THE DEPARTING RUSSIANS

Dr. Charles Sarolea has an amazing story to tell in the Contemporary Review of the two million Russians who fled from their land in the war, and who are now scattered all over Europe. He says they are not lost to Russia, but “they are the reserves of the coming. generation.” There have been many * dispersions in the world’s history,” says Dr. Sarolea, “but none has been on the same gigantic scale as the present Russian Diaspora, which includes men of all parties. The majority are probably Liberals and Conservatives. That emigration is also recruited from all social classes. The aristocracy, the middle classes, and the professional classes may outnumber the manual workers, but the Russian working man is largely represented. Not only is the Russian emigration larger than any other historical emigration, but the range and area of its dispersion is also much wider than any previous historical catastrophe. The refugees flying before the terror of Bolshevism originally stampeded in every direction, and they are now established in every country. The first question which occurs is how do all those poor people manage to live? The immigrants arrived in various European countries at the very worst possible moment. Almost every nation was in the throes of an economic crisis. Large numbers of the Russian aristocracy had money invested outside Russia before the war. Others had saved some remnant of the family fortune, and managed to live ; oh the produce of the sale of their family heirlooms. An occasional visit to the countless Jewish shops in Riga, Vilna, and Warsaw gives one an idea of the enormous extent of that trade in family heirlooms. Last year you could pick up for £lO pieces of antique furniture worth £SOO.

‘ ‘What will be the ultimate effects of this vast Russian migration on Europe ? It is a, universal law of history that the part which is played by refugees is entirely out of proportion to their numbers. Emigrants invariably , tend to fertilise the genius of other nations, and are a very : noticeable, factor in human progress. Germany expects to find ample compensation in Russia. The new Russia will need technical and eommerieal experts with a knowledge of the Russian language. Thousands of Germans are therefore! learning the language and preparing to play their part. The German Government hopes that those commercial travellers and scientific experts will, be the missionaries of a future German-Russian political alliance. ,r Tio-day Berlin is a Russian colony. Who knows but that to-morrow the wholfe 'of Russia may not become a German colony, and may not provide an outlet .for the teeming and superfluous millions .of the Fatherland? These German hopes, however, may be sadly disappointed .if and when it is 'brought home to the Russian people that Bolshevism has been; largely , a German that the Bolshevist leaders have been deliberately smuggled into Russia under German protection, and that therefore Germany is indirectly responsible for the Russian catastrophe.

“If the efforts of. the Russian emigration on Europe has been so far comparatively superficial, the effect of Europe on Russian .emigrants lias, on the contrary,-., been ,enormous. Before the war Russian refugees were either revolutionary anarchists or ilde aristocratic absentees. Thje present emigres, instead of being idlers, are strenuous workers. Instead-of being revolutionists, they are bitter,, anti-revolutionists. Future Russia, will,-above all, need two of men, .political leaders ana professional experts, engineers, lawjers, doctors, and teachers. The present Russian emigration /will provide both. The refugees are learning the art of politics in the only schools where it can be learned—the school of freedom. On the other hand, they have been learning the applied sciences in the technical schools and universities of the Continent.”