RUSSIAN FAMINE RELIEF FUND,

NZ Truth, Issue 868, 15 July 1922, Page 12

RUSSIAN FAMINE RELIEF FUND,

Dear "Truth," — Having been, a duly authorised collector for The Lord Weardale Committee, London, .sinos last November, I wish tp,, report that thanks to the many humane responses to appeals m various papers, I. have forwarded to the Weardale Committee £101. Letters received by me dated April 29 and May 18, from the Weardale .Committee, .request continuous help for the 300,000 children and 250,000 adults who are being fed by the All British Relief Administration. The letter of May 18 states: "Outgeneral secretary, who was at the Geneva discussion; as bur representat:ve, cabled, us as ; / follows"': 'Famine conditions spreading m Russia. There ii a campaign m certain circles to injure the , relief movement. All other statements, however circumstantial, are pure fabrication.'". You will readily see that as we have accepted the responsibility of feeding these extra children, we must have more money to enable us to do it. To feed a child costs about l%d a day,, or Is' a week, from the following foodstuffs: Beans, rice, milk, flour, sugar, bread, cocoa and fats. These are made into varied menus and given them m turn, and the cost of Is a child- per week covers all overhead charges of administration. Mrs. Laurence Webster's statement on the day that the kitchens were opened, and the children- were crowded round the doors, says that "One had only to glance at - the pinched, pallid face 3, over which the shadow of death already- -seemed to be cast, to realise how true it is that this. food literally means to many of them all the difference between life and death." This conveys m a few words the situation of these little- children who, through no fault of their own, are dying of starvation m the famine districts of Russia. In "Stead's Review" of .May 27, Meredith Atkinson , states, "It is a- foul lie to say >that the Bolshevik Government takes any of the food. Dr. Nansen and Sir Benjamin Robertson, the great Indian-famine 'expert, found, as I did, that, the food is well guarded all the way, that the leakage is negligible — less than one-half of one 'per cent — and safely. i*eaches those for whom it is intended. The need is \terrible and urgent. Let no political prejudice check the impulse to your charity. -'When wilt Thou save the people, O God of Mercy, when'?' He will save them only when they are ready to save one another. Follow the dictates of common humanity, "and Providence will look after this end of the. task. Who amongst us dare condemn to a horrible death a fellow-being, a little child, because he may not like the Government under which the innocent must live? It is sound economics, as well as high ethics, to restore the tillers of the soil m Russia to self-sufficiency. It is, true brotherhood to stretch Out a helping hand to . those millions of innocent sufferers undergoing the tortures o(! hell. The foundations of real peace are being laid on the famine front ( of the Volga." A pound now is worth ten kept m reserve. What a chance' to put a few line's to your credit.account, at such a paltry price! .All con-, tributions,' great or small, will be gratefully received by me at the appended address, and acknowledgedthrough "Truth."— rl am, etc.,

MRS. J. STABLES 20 Hawker Street, Wellington. >