RUSSIAN FAMINE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XI, Issue 213, 1 September 1921, Page 5

RUSSIAN FAMINE.

SOUTHERN TOWNS STARVING. POPULATION IN OPEN REBELLION ODESSA’S GRIM OUTLOOK. (Received 1, 11.50 a.m.) Helsingfors, Aug. 31. It is reported that the starving population at Tambov, Voronezh and Orel are in open rebellion. Troops were sent to the towns but refused to fire on the people. Food supplies at Odessa are exhausted and the population is faced with certain starvation. Cholera and black plague are rampant. — (A. and N.Z.) POLITICS AND HUNGER. SOVIET DISSOLVES RELIEF COMMITTEE. London, Aug. 30. On the ground that tho majority of the members of tho committee are counter revolutionaries, subordinating the interests of the starving " population to political considerations, the Soviet Government has dissolved the voluntary relief committee. This step is calculated to seriously hamper the relief measures, which at present arc at a critical juncture, as shown by a Moscow wireless message appealing to those who do not wish to sacrifice the interests of the starving people to political considerations to carry on relief work on the basis of independent initiative.

The “Daily Mail’s” Reval correspondent states that reports from the interior show that young women and boys are being sold to Persian merchants for white slavery. Infant mortality in the first year of life has reached 80 per cent. —(Reuter).

REFUSED TO BE SOVIET’S TOOL. I (Received 1, 9.0 a.m.) Copenhagen, August 31. The “PolitikeiPs” Riga correspondent says the Soviet dissolved the Relief Commission, because it included Bourgeois representatives; also believing that the Commission was under , the influence of counter-revolutionaries and i French politicians, who are endeavour- • ing to utilise the famine weapon to overthrow the Soviet. It is believed' the real reason is that the Commission . refused to become the Soviet’s tool.— (A. and N.Z.) RUSSO-NORWEGIAN COMMERCE TREATY. London. August 31. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Copenhagen ' correspondent states that Norway has concluded a commerce treaty with Russia, involving recognition of the) Soviet, but not interfering with the question of Russia’s debt to Norway, which tho Soviet does not recognise.— (A. and N.Z.) REDS THREATEN PERSIA. A DEFAULTING"COMMISSARY. Delhi, Aug. 30. Advices from Persia state that the Russian Government threatens hostilities if a defaulting Russian Commissary is not surrendered.—(A. and N.Z.)