RUSSIA’S PLIGHT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18322, 12 August 1921, Page 5

RUSSIA’S PLIGHT

THE FAMINE AREA. SOVIET LEADERS’ FEARS. A POIGNANT LETTER. Frees Association —By Telegraph Copyright, LONDON, August 10. The Daily Telegraph has published a poignant letter from a Russian correspondent at Moscow. It reads: “What a pity that you could not have seen Kamenoff, nervous and pale, haltingly admitting to a meeting of people whom the Bolshevista had tried for three years to destroy that the Soviet was impotent to deal with the famine. Remember, the Government did not call these meetings. lh' e slaves of yesterday met and demanded it, and such was the Bolshevists’ panic that they had to comply; hence the creation of the" non-political committee Avhich sent out an international appeal. Although they are now forced to accept assistance from those whose destruction they have sought hitherto, the Bolshevists have not changed their essentially malignant nature.” The letter continues: ‘‘Neither has the Soviet power to change the machinery of their monstrous administration. If food is handed over to the Soviet it means that the Reds and the 'drone officials get everything, and the poor people nothing. Whatever is done, outside organisations must control the distribution. The Soviet will oppose this bitterly; but it must not be otherwise. I think famine has given the Bolshevists the knockout. At M. Lenin’s tea table they are discussing ways and means of escaping and comparing notes on foreign, places for an asvlum. England is much favoured. M. Lenin is a wily bird, and he will take good care than we do not hang him. The real culprits are sure to leave betimes. We are their unwilling slaves. Maybe they will yet be destroyed by .the people’s first furious onslaught. The fear of famine has gone too far. Great territories have become empty, and are overrun by weeds. God’s will be doVie. Forgive mv incoherence, but I am always hungry and depressed. Do not believe that there is a Government in Russia. The Soviet tyrants simply control the big cities, several railroads, and a little food. The rest is all chaos. —A. and N.Z. Cable. FLIGHT OF THE CHILDREN. PETROGRAD, August 10. Special trains are removing 70,000 children from the .amine areas.—A. and N.Z. Cable.