FAMINE IN RUSSIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13278, 6 May 1907, Page 6

FAMINE IN RUSSIA.

MILLIONS STARVING. •"Ths present famine bids fair to become one of the most awful calamities that even Russia has .ever -witnessed.' . This terrible''prediction is made by M. Nicola Shishkoff, member of- the Zemtsvo Relief Association- and ex-ms-mber of: the Council of the Russian Empire, who has gone to Engiapd to seek assistance from the people of this nation on behalf of his starving fellow-countrymen, M. Shishkoff is fresh from a four months' tour to the province of Samara, in South-Eastern Russia, and the picture he gives in the ""limes" of the misery caused by the\ famine is appalling. " Hundreds of thousands of people are on the verge of starvation; both scurvy and typhus—thos:' inseparable companions of famines-are commencing ' their deadly work. The crops have failed over vast' areas of country; they have been far below ■ th-■ ■ average in more than twer.tyfive provinces, and' in eight or ten of them there ha? been virtually no harvest whatever. Not only aro'iha pSoplo reduced to starvation, but their only hope for the future—their working cattle—is lMjiuly perishing. As far back as- the middle of November more, .than 200,000 liors.s and 85;000 milch cows had bsen killed or had [perished, in' -this one province, th? loss ir certain districts ranjring from' 20 to 34 ■per cent. .If such is the loss in November, what it will be before April? " Hunger forces' the peasant to sell ofr all his belongings; , his warm clothes, his utensils, his last cattle, sometimes his cottage, and, but ijtoo often, his future crops and his labour. The outbuildings, the cattle pens and empty barns are used np as fuel during , the cruel i frosts of our Russian winter, for where there is no money for -food there is none to spare for fu el. Often two or: three families crowd together in one loghouse—about 20ft square.—and demolish the other cot-, tages to .feed the one remaining -stove. One must, see this to understand all the misery that a human being' can endure before he gives up: the weary struggle .for existence. . .

" This autumn thousands of people in Russia lived for weeks on acorn u, parched and ground up .with a small quantity of rye or wheat- and vaten either as a porridge, or baked! into hard black calces. Often the husks of the acorns were mixed with the meal to add to the volume of this awful food. It is extremely doubtful whether any animal would touch this -stuff, which was doled out in small portions.. even to the dren. The last resource of the famished people is to lie motionless, day and night, as every inovem-rat trebles the pains of hunger. What . wonder that a very few months of such a diet end in wholesale epidemics of typhus and scurvy ?" The Russian Government- is said by M. Sliishkoff to be doing its best to provide grain for the starving villages, but all its efforts are insufficient to relieve the distress. There are in- the Samara province alone at ; least two ihillion people whose very existence depends entirely c-n chirity of Gnvemrrent relief. The cestof maintaining these two millions during th? nest,' siS months is not- less than £2,025,000 (at the rate of l-jd par day for cattle, or any other expenses). Th'e. Government has graritrd : £1,4,80,C00 and the funds of Uio r.u~sian relief bodies brings the total up to £1,640,000. That means that at least £385;,000 more is needed to keep the people from Ftarving. , When you recollect that., these figures apply only to one of the provinces you can understand what enormous sunis are needed this yea] to relieve all the provinces where the harvest has failed,

Iu tha many villages where the reliel 'bodies are poperies:; to give .assistance, through lack of funds, {.Vs distress- i: rapidly becoming very terrible.- The unfortunate peasants, after celling all that can be sold, try - to -eke out. their lasi s-upply of rye-flovr or millet- by mixing all kinds of eatable (?) but .Tireless ingredients wi h it—bran, grass seeds, chaff, and even straw. And yet three shillings would keep one of these poor souls alive for a month !