RUSSIAN FAMINE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 28 March 1922, Page 6

RUSSIAN FAMINE.

HOST APPALLING OF HISTORY

MILLIONS MUST DIE

CASES OF CANNIBALISM

. LONDON, February 1. In the Assembly of the League of Nations four months ago, Dr Nansen made * starring appeal to the Governments of Europe to contribue officially £0,----000,000 to save the famine stricken people of Russia. Although the delegates were* all in sympathy with private charity, the respective Governments lad informed their representatives 1o reject the suggestion of relief through official sources. Dr Nansen, as High Commissioner for Famine Relief in Russia, has pursued his work, relying on the assistance from private charity. A proportion of the starving millions has been saved, but Dr Nansen, foreseeing that many millions must die unless more xnoney is forthcoming, has set out through European countries-to make his appeal to the Governments once more.

The three societies—The Famine Relief Fund, the Friends' Emergency Relief Fund, and the Save the Children JTund—are now working in concert, and last week they sent a joint letter to the Prime Minister on the subject. They stated that between them they had raised £287,000, to which must be addeJ the Government's gift of £100,000. They asked for a further gift, and suggested £500,000; not because private subscriptions are falling off—they are in fact increasing—but because there is no prospect of their increase keeping pace with the growing urgency. At present the British fund (administered on the spot by British asents) are relieving 350.000 children; but unless means can now be found to relieve adults also, the final result will be to leave a population of helpless orphans.

LIVES THAT COST LIVES.

Dr Nansen has come to England aat only to appeal once more to the British Government and to the peoples of the country, but to refute what he -designated as "lies" which have been told concerning the work. At a great ideetang in the Queen's Hall last night, the world-famed explorer said that "lies" had been invented about his agreement; about the looting of trains; about the work the. Soviet authorities had done; about his own words, and about th« work of the British Save the Children Fund, and these lies had meant the death of millions. Those who .made the assertion that the economic situation of Europe did not justify the Governments on helping to relieve other peonies until it had dealt with the distress among its own overlooked the fact .that Russia could not export food or become a market for the world until the Volga had once more become a granary and a market. Therefore, it was not only charitable, but good business for Europe to *£* oefore the time °f sm-ing sowing. Ihe Soviets had done, and were still doangj what they could, but they were not a strong Government. Nervousness and opposition seem to hare grown from the fact that the Soviet Gavernnient is iargely to bian^ for the present state of affairs in Russia'but if anyone needed farther proof of the bitter need for help Md the horrors that the peasants of the Volga are suffering, they had enough and to spare at the great mass meeting !a?* evening. For Dr Nansen brought with him a large number of pictures which he himself had taken in the course or nis journeys through the devastated areas. They depicted some of the worst Jiorrors of the famine—corpses lyirt"»eglected in the streets; living and dead lying; in the same bed; piles of hunweds of shrivelled coroses lying in tlie cemeteries awaiting "burial; children fcdeously emaciated with distended stomachs and swollen limbs, with the* large round eyes staring in unconscious reproach at civilisation. And .then he told of adults, once decent people, now devoid of al\ moral control: of secret excursions to the QTaveyards where the dead bodies were stolen "for fond; and of men and women actuaTlv'k'illing and eating their fellow-sufferers.

ECONOMIC AND HUMANITARIAN

SIDE

Lord Robert Cecil, who presided, said tbat more than one of the relief societies iiad been subjected to criticism, and he could only hope that the critics had done one-hundredth nart of the good to Jiumanity that those societies had to their credit. Dr Nansen had. in thi« matter, as in all his career, been directed only by an altruistic desire, to serv« humanity. He was making a great appeal tor the assistance of the world—an appeal which had two sides, an ecoJiemic side and a humanitarian side -*rom the point of view of private cnanty the humanitarian side was the more important. From the point of view or public policy, the economic side was of greater moment. We could not pursue a policy which would doom Russia to econionic disaster without grave injury to our own interests ;and prosperity, -and we could not neglect the humanitarian appeal of these millions of helpJess t human beings without being false to «very precept of our morality and religion.

In view of New Zealand's interest in the Save the Children Fund Sir James Allen occupied a seat on the platform

NINETEEN MILLION THREATEN-

ED WITH DEATH,

Dr Naneen was most enthusiastically revived by the great audience. Theri had come to Russia, he said, the most appalling famine that had evar happened in the recorded history of man He would not prophesy, but if the Governments of the. world would not now act as he had asked them to act—to grant Bussia £5,000,000 to carry out the most urgent and essential tasks—even yet great things might be done. The population was a peasant one, living Jby th« food they produced, and unless they grew their crops this year, next yeas they would starve again. Of 33,000,000 people in the area, at least 19,000 000 were directly and seriously menaced with death. Millions must inevitably *c £ hel c 7 ere tims two problems— to light the famine raging now and the one that would rage next year. Among«t the reasons given by the Governments tor rejecting his appeal of four months ago was t he contention that by lending ieip to fight the famine they would heto to maintain the Soviet system in Russia. A second reason was that it was impossible to get real guarantees that the relief sent would reach the starving population; and the third, the strongest reason, was that the economic state of Europe was such that no Government was justified in imposing even ihm flight burdens that would be necessary effective aid were to be sent to Ru«£ f? c rs* reason he dismissed as unworthy of serious attention. It used to be urged that it was not only SS'^f USeltf'. to ie *P the Russians because it was their governmental sysS + w elf caused the fami^ and until that cause was removed the situation could not be made better In iis opinion, after mature reflection and profound investigation, this contention was entirely and evidently wrong rt was impossible to attribute to any single cause the extent and effect of ; W ?^T> W¥ oh was due to a num-f 3S* f^ Se\ ent and co-operating causS i Such a vast economic disaster would iave shaken the strongest State to its foundations. The famine was due to •

matters over which the Russian people had no control. It could not have been overcome by any action which they themselves alone could undertake, and it was vital that assistance from outside should be brought t^^yt them on their feet.

GUARANTEES AGAINST THEFT

As regards guarantees that relief would reach the right quarters, Dr Nansen gave the most absolute assurance that, so far as his agreement was concerned, the resources which were placed at the disposal of the League of Nations would reach those for whom they were intended. The British public could have special assurances for every penny, and every pennyworth of goods contributed within the British Isles had been and would be administered by British hands and under British supervision and control. It had been argued that, even if the agreement were observed, there was no certainty that in a country in a state of anarchy the goods sent would not be pillaged. Lying assertions had been spread throughout the press of Europe that trains had been looted and consignments pillaged. There was not a word of truth in these assertions. It was further objected that even if the goods arrived they were misappropriated by the Soviet authorities. He did not deny that the distribution of food in a famine-stricken land was no easy matter, but they had devised a system of distribution which guaranteed them against loss by theft. An eloquent appeal was made for financial help by Miss Maud Royden, who moved: "That this meeting, representative of all shades of political and religious opinion, realising the iaevitable inadequacy of assistance from private sources, begs the Government to intervene to mitigate the world disaster of the Russian famine."

WHITEWASHING BOLSHEVISM. '

The Times this morning voices the fear\that the famine is being mad* an occasion for whitewashing the Bolshevist regimes, whether by indignaiifc repudiation of the charges of had faith made against the Bolshevists in connection with the famine, or by subtle commendation of the attention shown by the Soviet authorities to relief workers.

DARKEST BLOT UPON OUR TIME

"There is no question of ihs «xten of the calamity and of the bitter nee< tor help," says the writer of the leadini article. "To live in a world, in whicJ such^ things are happening as .those tha are happening in Russia now is a crue and devastating experience for the mes and women of this generation. Th Russian famine is the darkest blot upoi our time. It is not easy to think o such thigs. It is still more difficult t imagine them, yet the .evidence is in controvertible. The efforts that nay been made to relieve the distress hay only served more clearly ,to reveal th hopeless misery o f the thousands c Russians who are dying daily and ar doomed m any case to <aie of starva toon. It is useless to enquire whethe these men sinned or their fathers, tha they were born to die such a deati Nor can we with any *easy conscienc enjoy whatever sligu. ma be ours, knowing that in a large ar« of Europe human beings like ourselvei who have shared with us the light c the sun and the simple joys and «,i rows of existence, are being swift'lv cv ofr because a combination of *dar forces has snatched from them thei daily bread. Nature and man „ against this stricken peasantry, an they must die. It'is worth while t S] .fma^ e -? me breach in the s*on wall of calamity, so that, even if mi lions are beyond rescue, at least som thousands may be 'saved.'" VICTIMS OF THE SOVIET REGIM: Turning to the othe-r side of tk question however, the writer cm; tmues : "The famine is the mosTcruTl a S c°nf I mnat^n of Bolshevik theor and Bolshevist methods If it ha not been for the crimes of Lenin an his followers we siould have been spa ed the spectacles of that growin mZZA* Volga- II is « $ thing thai Wope can tolerate th thing that Europe can tolerate the con ttnued existence of the regime that ha made this calamity .possible. Yet th, very misery of the famine is beini St for gT ndJ°J a PPeal* f- S port for the Soviet Government It i an astonishing inversion of Io"i e am justice in the name of humairfty? M Krassm himself, the Bolshevik repr. sentative who is allowed to expZi" has lh?\ at + lafge ln thls coJnSSr nas the effrontery to stand up befor< c?ofb ft Ctt le / ritish audiences an clothe the destructive policy of hi appeal tor their .wretched victims Sop"e gtTtl €d RuSßia an, d -d^d^ people to tho extreme of misery thi Bolshenh are faced with the loss o s pof S u^,e thtu ru=, a*r m ar j PoS'th^tSfe SJg? H famine, and the best and the kindes may be caught unawares. There is tf, opportunity to save wiat livls C S still be saved on the Volga to tak" «very care that the worl kail S3S2ST r^ °f 32 THE GENOA CONFERENCE. "The Genoa Conference may meet heads erect, as equals? A^l +H specialists in destmcS e^StedU but let them come there as in smmm desperate purpose under a veil o f r E Srd tx cece S t-? ropehei''k*^ A NOT UNATTRACTnT-E PROPOSIThe Daily Chronicle thinics half .a 1

SSf E n Vat '""• ''"^'ossible sum for a British Government, but in the present state of national finances it has to be looked at very carefully. Jt would, however, be spent in buying rye in Roland and maize in Roumama; and, as ootn these countries are very eager to buy British goods, which they Jnnot pay for in their depreciated currencies, the actual destiny of the money would be to buy and export British goods. In other words, the ±,500,000 worth ot famine relief for the starving Russians and £500,000 worth of unemployment relief for British fae- j tones, besides encouraging the eco- 1 nomic revival of Central Europe -Looked at m this way, it seems a not unattractive proposition.