RUSSIAN FAMINE

Otago Witness, Issue 3519, 23 August 1921, Page 17

RUSSIAN FAMINE

DISASTROUS FIRES RAGING. LONDON, August 13. According to reports from Moscow disastrous fires have added to Russia’s other troubles. Eighteen oil wells at Baku are aflame, with no means cf quenching the (ires. The inhabitants are evacuating the town. Another fire destroyed a large portion of the city of Pinsk. The All-Russian Central Committee at Moscow, instead of imprisoning the convicted social revolutionaries and Alenshivists, is sending them to the cholerastricken regions to work. The Evacuation Committee has commenced the systematic removal of 100,000 peasants from the famine areas. Soviet refugees have been sent to Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania. A REIGN OF TKRROR. LONDON, August 15. The Daily Mail’s correspondent at Warsaw reports that- /amine is only accentuating the appalling brutality of*the Bolshevist rule. Women agents at Moscow, doped with cocaine, are killing through sheer blood lust. The Government is onlv maintained by a regime of terror. The peasants are rising in the Ukraine against the Government’s corn requisitions. Refugees are trekking to Poland. They are gaunt, emaciated, spectres. Many of them have been practically foodless for a fortnight.

Butter is being sold at 15,000 roubles per lb, bread at 6000 roubles per lb, and potatoes at 2000 roubles per lb. It is reported from Paris that the Communist regiments are being dispatched to the interior of Russia with orders to shoi the starving peasantry who are trying t cross from one Government to another. GU A R-A N T EES XEC ESS ARY. LON DON, August 16. Sjieaking in the House of Commons with reference to the work of the Supreme Council Mr Lloyd George said that the Russian famine was one of the most ap palling catastrophes which had visited the world for centuries. They must, however, have a complete guarantee that any relief given would reach the sufferers. THIRTY-FIVE MILLION AFFECTED. LONDON, August 16. Replying to questions in the House of Commons Air Cecil ILarmsworth said that the British official agent in Moscow had just reported confirming the extent of the gravity of the Russian famine. A total of 35,000,000 people were affected and the number was constantly increasing. Large masses were treking to Poland, Turkestan, and Siberia in an attempt to escape from starvation. Poland could not accept the refugees and those going in other directions were faced with the difficulty of crossing the foodless and shelterless steppes. Nearly one third of the trekkers consisted of foodless children in a most pitiable condition. BERLIN, August 16. Parents in Samara (on the Volga, 650 miles eastward of Moscow) are leaving their children on the doorsteps of Soviet officials and institutions. A children’s colony has been established to which waifs and stravs are sent, hut the mortality is appalling. It amounts to this—thev are gathered up from the streets in order that they will not die before the people’s eyes. PROMPT ASSISTANCE URGED. GENEVA, August 17. The conference which is dealing with the question of the Russian famine appointed Dr Nansen and Mr H. C. Hoover Chief Commissioners. Thev are fully empowered to administer relief, and are cooperating as far as possible with the Russian Government and the voluntary organisations. The Supreme Council and the League of Nations notified the formation of a council in order to secure unified Governmental and private action and cooperation. The Council of the League of Nations is issuing an urgent world-wide appeal to all charitable organisations for prompt and generous assistance. THE FOOD SHORTAGE. SYDNEY, August 19. Mr Walsh, foimerly Imperial Russian Consul here, has forwarded to the Sydney Morning Herald a letter which he received from a Petrograd physician, stating that though his income last year was £150,000, he would have starved had it not been for some patients paying in kind. AMERICAN RELIEF ORGANISATION. WASHINGTON, August 18. Air Hoover has announced that an agreement regarding Russian relief has been arrived at, M. Litvinoff conceding all the conditions imposed by Mr Hoover. The American Relief Organisation will have complete control of supplies from distribution to consumption. Mr Hoover stated that all the principal world relief organisations will co-operate. No public appeal for funds will be made owing to the economic situation in America. HARVEST FAILS IN EIGHT PROVINCES. LONDON, August 19. The Riga correspondent of The Times reports that the latest figures from Russia show that the harvest is twice as bad as the worst previously recorded, also a smaller area was cultivated than ever before. Eight provinces completely failed, and 16,000,000 inhabitants are affected. The deficit is over 36.000,000 poods. The immediate needs on August 5 were 1,000,000 poods, in addition to what was required for seed. The Ukraine and Siberia are the onlv possible sources of relief inside Russia. The Soviet at Vologda offered a prize of 1,500,000 roubles for the best hunger bread, containing a maximum of 12 per cent, of cereals and the remainder bark, edible wild plants, and other substitutes. August 20. The Russian trade delegation in London states that the harvest in the provinces outside the famine area should he satisfactory, considering the difficulties and old-fashioned methods of agriculture in vogue. The White Russian provinces can export to the famine area 43,000 tons of potatoes and 8000 tons of corn. The total cholera cases since January number 71,871. STA RYING (Jill. DREN. COPENHAGEN, August 19. A message from Reval states that M. Lunacharsky. Soviet Commissary of Education. declares that crowds of children, deserted by their parents, are living on the banks of the Y*olga, where many deaths due to starvation are occurring. Some parents are drowning their children rather than witness their gradual starvation. The Communists in districts not touched by the famine have begun flight, fearing violence from the wandering starving masses. The Central Soviet has abolished prohibition. A decree permits the manufacture and sale of wines. The nationalisation of houses in Petrograd is also abandoned. Princess Tatiana Kourakin has arrived in Paris. She was imprisoned for three months in Russia, and escaped by pretend ing marriage with., a Bolshevist, paying him 12,000,000 roubles to play bis part.

The Politiken's Reval correspondent says that a British financial group, which is interested in the Vickers-Armstrong companies, has practically comnleted arrangements to acquire a concession in Russia’s largest dockyard at Nicolaiev, in the Black Sea. The Soviet will receive a commission of 25 per cent, on the output. The Daily Mail’s correspondent in Russia states that M. Krassin informed the Supreme Council that the Aloscow Soviet intended to remove all the Bolshevist gold to England, adding that it is no longer opportune to await the outbreak of a revolution tin Western Europe, and that the Soviet must strive for some kind of co-operation with Western European capitalists.