FARTHEST EAST.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 17, 3 January 1920, Page 3

FARTHEST EAST.

IN STARVING VLADIVOSTOCK WOMEN WORK AND MEN DRINK. [This is a recital of the experiences of Lieut. Lawrence D. Butler, who had a command of an American detachment al Romanoffka- Butler was wounded and is now in New York, where he has been talking to the newspapers.] One of the first things .that struck our boys on arrival at Vladivostock was the curious way in which they were expected to take their matutinal bath. Instead of performing this sacred rite in the customary way, wo found that the Russian can get along very nicely without a tub, and that he uses instead a marble slab on which he stands, and then throws water over his person from buckets. Tlie houses have no bathroom. but Vladivostock has several pulihv bath-houses, which are fitted with numerous marble slabs an<U hotwater boilers. These bath-houses were always crowded. Our boys could not accustom themsunes to this way of bathing, and the American army soon fixed up a regular oa.uiug system of its own at the base, where you could get running hot and cold water, shower baths, etc-, at any time. Il strange to speak of bathing buicues in Siberia, as we generally think of Siberia only in terms of ice, snow, and frozen fields. Yet, in summer, it is one of the hottest places on earth, and the beaches near Vladivostock present to lively an appearance as at Coney Island. One thing impressed our American soldiers as mighty strange, and that was the fact of bathing costumes- Men and women go in bathing together without costumes, and nobody seems to think anything of it. During the hot weather, the Siberians make hardly any change in their attire, the women wearing their furs, and the men going about the year around in heavy fur overcoats.

WORLD’S BEAUTIES. There are some of the world’s most beautiful women iu Siberia. The women of th© better classes especially i dress out of sight in the costliest of I iurs and in the latest Parisian creai tions. These women filled th© cabarets i at all hours, for the Vladivostock cabarets are open all night, and the really busy time there starts at midnight. With all the misery of Russia and Siberia, Vladivostock is u very brilliant city. j It is probably the most cosmopolitan 1 centre iu the world, since- one sees in its streets the uniforms of Americans, French, Italians, Czechs, Russians, . Chinese, British, Hindus and other na- } tionalities. The Russians only eat two meals daily, and one of these they eat in the palatial cabarets. Wo Americans did not do much cabaret hunting, as we either were doing the hard work along the lines, or eke, if stationed at Vladivostock had to be in our quarters by 11 o’clock at nightThe Siberian people, and especially the people of Vladivostock, are strong for holidays.. Their calendar comprises some 100 religious days, and, together with other _ holidays, there are few days in which to work. You could nut tempt a Russian to work on a holiday for love or money. One of the most horrible and heartless sights in the world is the Vladivostook morgue. Here I saw 300 bodies of men, women and children, the accumulation of weeks of misery, all crowded together, either to lie cremated or else to be buried in a hole. I Though they profess to be religious the rank and file of the people of Siberia have little regard for their deadAmong the poor classes of Vladivostock there is much suffering, due to lack of medical attention and lack of food. And- there is a large class ol formerly well-to-do people, and even of the poor, who are too proud to ask for anything. These people compare very favourably with those aristocrats who really were not so badly off, but who used >to dress in rags on occasion, to come to the American Red Cross relief trains, trying to get something for nothing. These aristocrats were often detected through their speech, since the speech of an educated Russian differs a great deal from that of the moujiks and others-

A DARK WINTER. The coming winter is going to be hard for the people of Siberia, as nothing has been raised, and many will have io depend ou the Red Cross. The nurses oi the peasantry have been commandeered by Ktiltcnak’s generals, and the peasants were especiauy emoitiered on tnis account against General Kressiloif Mho commanded at ohKotovo. - .. .. We Americans tried to help out the poor people as much as we could, and especially tried to care for the children. The Russan kiddies would came to our camp with cans to get the leavings of our mess tables, and it was a pitiful sight to see them standing around, waiting patiently. We round the Siberian women grateful for whatever help we gave them. The peasant women have rather ex. pressionless faces, but they are meek and kind. They work all day in the fields for their husbands, and at night give them their earnings, with which the men buy vodka, frequently they are abused by their husbands and turned out of the house, but they are faithful, like dogs, and always come back.

During the fight at Romanoffka, when we were attacked by the local Bolsheviks, a Russian peasant woman, whose husband was on the other side, fighting us, came through the firing tines to bnng water to our wounded, and she dragged three of our wounded men out of harm's way into a building. She was recognised by her husband and other Bolsheviks who were firing from a hill, and they called to her to go back, as the “Amerikansky” would certainly kill her. But she went on with her merciful work. Out in the rural districts our soldiers used to buy milk and eggs from the peasant women. We only paid "Jd a dozen for the eggs,-and a big, round loaf of Siberian bread cost only 2Jd. This bread was very good; as the Siberian wheat is excellent. In Vladivostock the bread was sold only at a few stores, and only at certain hours of the week, and the people used to stand in long lines--TNKi