HUNGRY, BUT SMILING.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14703, 2 June 1920, Page 7

HUNGRY, BUT SMILING.

I (By Ambrose Lambert, Moscow.) "What will the members of the La- , bor delegation of the League of Naj tions see if they visit Soviet Russ a? | How will the conditions compare-with j the pictures, which are continually be- ; ing drawn for English consumption, of a most brutal, soldiery and of un- | mitigated terror by day and by night, making life a. continuous, "hideous j nighttnare of outrage and atrocity?" j When M. Litvinoff me permission at Copenhagen to visit Soviet Russia, he said, "I don't care what., you write as long as it is the truth." At that time I felt—my mind being filled with a number of' uniform descriptions of the horrible conditions which obtained in .Russia—that his statement was rash,- to say the least of it. But, after several days' wandering iir the streets of Petrograd and Moscow, at all hours of the day and night. I must frankly confess I have searched vainly for any signs of the slightest evidence of terrorism. ,On the contrary; instead of organised or disorganised lawlessness, I have found the most peaceful and innocent communities. Moscow and Petrograd are the safest cities to cross, ! late at night, that I have ever en-' I countered. As for the Red Army, Which is supposed to be omnipresent and to exercise a reign of terror over every one. I can only say that I saw more soldiers in London than I have seen since I left the Esthoninn frontier up till now. A solitary soldier at the Esthonian frontier represented Russia at the ! barbed-wire gate across the roadway which marked the boundary. While orr- ,= my way in" a sleigh to Yambury, on the line of evidences of the fighting in the shape of ruined villages, duq;-outs. shell-holes, churches destroyed, and the bridges across the Luga blown up, so that I had to cross on the ice, I saw. scarcely a dozen sentries. I saw large detachments of troops, it is true, but instead of rifles they were equipped with axes, having been transformed into labor battalions. They seemed a happy lot as they straggled hack after their work to goods trucks which they had transformed into comfortable barracks, where their evening meals were being cooked and their tea . prepared. Smile, and they smile back with childlike good nature. 'My great- surprise has been to find, that-this distressed and undernourished ! people continues not only to smile, but to laugh and undernourishment is a | horrible, terrible reality that everywhere obtrudes itself.' Pinched, paie 'faces although it is surprising how .frequently rosy ones are to be met with ! —a plodding gait, general lassitude, and 'want of energy tell their story of the 'effects of the lack of fats and of other [nutritive elements, from which the : population has suffered for such an in- . terminable period. j. There is no actual starvation, as the 'Government sees to the equable distribution of such foodstuffs as it possesses, I hut there is a cumulative undernourish- [ ment that arouses wonder at the remarkable vitality of the people and their ability to sustain themselves, i One correspondent, perhaps more familiar with Russia, than any one here, confesses that, sturdy as he is, a six weeks' stay will be all he can endure, . and - that then he will be obliged to go to a neutral country to build up his ! system with red steaks and green vege- | tables, which are unobtainable here, j The Russian people, however, have ' been obliged to endure these conditions [without relief and without seeking a- | haven in neighboring countries for ! years. i " The only explanation which occurs to ! my mind to account for t-ho wonderful [endurance of the Russian masses is that 'they are sustained by an unshakable I faith that their sufferings are temporary and will shortly be relieved by new land happy conditions in a prosperous ! Russia teeming with the good things of j the earth for all.