SUFFERING STUDENTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19182, 27 May 1924, Page 9

SUFFERING STUDENTS.

CONDITIONS IN EUKOPE. WORK OF STUDENT RELIEF FOND. iSome time ago not a little was heard here of the appalling conditions of starvation and destitution under which large num bens of students were existing in many European countries. Little has been published on the subject lately, and probably most ptsople who give the matter a thought conoludo that the worst is over, and that conditions are rapidly approaching normal again. Mr Charles D. Murrey, travelling secretary of the World's Student Christian Federation, states emphatically that that is not so. Mr Hurrey, who is just concluding a breif visit to Dunodin, was in Germany Jess than a year ago, and visited the University centres there, lie is intimately acquainted also with the conditions in other parts of the Continent. In conversation with Mr Hurrey on this subject one soon realises that the widespread support given to the European Student Relief organisation is one of the most remarkable manifestations of the broad international outlook and friendsliip that is typical of student bodies everywhere. The leading student centres of South America, for instance, have recently taken up generous subscriptions for student relief and forwarded the money to the central office at Geneva. It has been their practice to do so dmrinp- the last three years a» an expression of appreciation of what the European student centres of learning had meant to the newer university centres of South America. This response on the part of students is 'world-wide and from Japan, India, and China as well as the Western nations generous contributions have beflTi sent in. Less than a year ago Mr Hurrey visited the university centres of Munich, Leipsig, Dresden, and Berlin. In each centre he met hundreds of students and professors and -visited the feeding stations which had been opened, sometimes in the university buildings, by the European Student Relief. Occasionally the roonie were small, so that a long queue of students extending over a block would be seen at meal hours waiting their turn to obtain a simple meal whion would cost them about id each. He took luncheon with 1100 students in the University of Leipsig, where the waiters were 70 of their fellow students. During the. meal a professor told him that 30 per cent, of those students were in the first stages of tuberculosis. None of them were having any breakfast, and therefore a Cocoa Cluo had been formed to provide cocoa and bread for suoh students as were threatened with tuberculosis. In Leipsig, under the direction of the Bureau of Self-help, which is one of the interesting developments of the European Student Relief Movement, many students were provided with employment as translators and in such tasks as preparing materials for biological laboratory work, repairing shoes, tailoring, playing at cinema shows, type-setting, and so. forth. The underlying principles of this Relief Movement are the provision of opportunity for selfjsupport rather than the distribution charity. "My conversation," Mr Hurrey told a limes interviewer, "with students and prominent graduates suoh as HerrCuno, at that time Chancellor of the Exchequer, and three members of his Cabinet brought out their universal belief that their nation was being plunged into chaos. They feared complete political extinction and widespread rioting and distress." In Dresden the European Student Relief organisation hud provided a splendid social centre near the university where meals could be obtained and a comfortable room in which to study. These buildings were constantly crowded by eager students. In Prague, with the co-operation of the Czech Government, several thousand refugee students from Russia and neighbouring countries are given the opportunity of pursuing their studies, and in the great building, the "Sbudentaky Domov," these students obtain their meals and congregate in the largo social halls for study and social intermingling. Desperate conditions were found among certain students in Asia Minor and the Near East, particularly among 1000 Russian students in the city of Constantinople. Through tha co-operation of the League of Nations the Amerio&n Red Cross and Uie Y.M C.A. many of these students have been enabled to go across to America and obtain employment through a Russian Aid Society in New York, by which they will earn sufficient money to continue their technical studies in some of the engineering, colleges of America. The conditionn among Russian students in' whom New Zealand students have been particularly interested, are vividly depicted' in a recent report from Mr Conrad Hoffmann, of the Student Itelief, who writes from Kharkov: —"We are in the midst of dead winter (he says), cold and snow in abundance, snow drifts 10 and more feet high. It i.~ this that makes the lot of students Jieiv the most miserable I have seen any where. Even Germany and her students are in paradise in contrast. Here is human suffering which wo dare not refuse to relieve unless wo bo damned to eternal punishment for playing the Levite rather than the Samaritan. Our two kitchens here feed 2000 students regularly, and arc the best managed of any kitchens I have seen, not excepting those in Germany. Besides the 2000, there are 400 students who, because they cannot have a daily meal, pair off and either share one daily meal or take the full meal on alternate days, because, remember, we do not have the extra twopence a day per student. "The hospitals, surgical, internal, infectious diseases, tuberculosis, and dental departments gave 19,000 treatments last year, or over one treatment to each of the 18,000 students in Kharkov, the intellectual centre of the Ukraine. Eighty per cent, of all students are tubercular, 15 per cent, with open tuberculosis and little prospect of recovery. The students if properly nourished can recover, but we must close down our kitchens here in two weeks unless more funds become available at once^ "Some of the living quarters here beggar description—damp, dark, cold, basement stores, with six to 12 students living in each. A few iron bedsteads; but the bulk of the 400 students who live in one building are sleeping on grimy sacks filled with straw. "Not a single wardrobe, hardly a student with a single piece of clothing that he is not wearing the -whole time. Books conspicuous by their absence. They burn wood blocks, which the students themselves chop; but most rooms are without heat. And these are students living on a meal n day, plus a little black bread and tea at nignt! "After I had toured the building, thev gathered round me, mute but expectant of what I ;vould do. Was I not representative of the European Student Relief, that ministering angel? No request for help, but silence—implying a child-like trust that we' could not possibly fail them. All T could say was we had no money, and that we must close down. I could give then no hope beyond the assurance thnt I would leave no stone unturned, and Kharkov is but one of seven centres which will suffer the same fate.'' Latest reports from Russia indicate n desperate condition prevailing among the student class. It is significant that when this recent information came to the attention 'of students in America a representative gathering was called which decided to double the generous contributions already made for Eurooean Student Relief. Similarly in the British Isles, Holland, and the Scandinavian countries extraordinary efforts are being put forth by the students to meet the tragic needs in Russia. The and generous response of New Zealand students last year in observing a work day during 'which they engaged in all sorts of tasks and gave their earnings to this relief cause has called forth universal praise nnd expressions of deepest gratitude from the university centres of Europe.