SOVIET CENSUS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 97, 29 August 1923, Page 5

SOVIET CENSUS

DISCLOSURES M THE UKRAINE.

STARVATION AM) CROIE. Press Association—Copyright, Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (The Times.) (Received 10 a.m.) London, August 28. According to the latest official Soviet census, there are more than lj million waifs and strays in the Ukraine, only fourteen per cent of •whom receive attention from relief organisations, the remainder being left to their own devices. Nearly 30,000 crimes were committed by waifs under thirteen years of age registered in the Ukraine during the last six months.

One hundred and fifteen thousand waifs and strays were registered in Odessa and Nikolaiev. The majority of the vagabonds gain a livelihood by begging and thieving. They also commit graver crimes, such as murdering and plundering.

Epidemics are raging among the children in the bigger Ukraine towns. The police frequently discover the bodies of persons who have died of starvation or disease.