THE RUSSIAN FAMINE.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 1914, 7 September 1921, Page 5

THE RUSSIAN FAMINE.

SOVIET BLOCKS RELIEF WORKERS, [By Electric Cable —Copyright.] [Aust. and N.Z. Cable Association.] (Received Tuesday. '.) p.m.) LONDON, September 5. Well-informed circles arc not optimistic regarding the nature of the Soviet reply to a wirelessed request ito permit a commission to proceed to I Russia to supervise the famine relief work. The International Commission is anxious to begin its labours in South Russia, where the famine is worst, and gradually work northwards, but the Soviet insists on the relief being centred in Petrograd. Doubt is expressed as to whether in the latter case the relief will penetrate byond there. The official trade delegation in London meanwhile declares that the period of the worst distress has temporarily passed, but will recur between the time when the surplus of the September harvest is consumed and the next crop is gathered. Unless help is forthcoming, it is estimated that the peasants' famine areas will require three hundred thousand tons of grain to tide over the interval. CRISIS IN GERMANY. TRANSPORT SYSTEM BLOCKED. (Received Tuesday, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, September 6. The "Morning Post's" Riga correspondent 3tate? that the famine crisis is growing in horror. The American relief organisation's efforts- are undoubtedly prompt and energetic, but they resemble an attempt to scoop up the Atlantic with a tea spoon. The newspaper "Pravda" candidly reveals what observers have long realised that-the supplies are likely to go in the first instance to the Red Army. While the Soviet assured Dr Nansen of its ability to transport enormous quantities of foodstuffs, an expert writing in the "Pravda" points out that the southern railways have twenty-three thousand trucks and seven hundred locomotives idle. Owing to lack of fuel the railways are unable to transport the foodstuffs which are immediately available.