RUSSIAN TRAGEDY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 288, 31 August 1921, Page 5

RUSSIAN TRAGEDY

POIGNANT ACCOUNT OF LIFE IN MOSCOW LIVING IN ATMOSPHERE OF DEATH DESPERATE FIGHT FOR FOOD By Telegranh—Preai Association—Copyright London, August 29. The “Morning Post” publishes the following letter, received from a famous Moscow actress of international repute: —"Tho tragedy of life here is that none of us are normal human beings. Wo are ghosts from another world. The standards of normal life cannot be applied to Russians. The immediate problem is what I am going to sell to-day; what can I sell to get half a pound of bread and a piece of-fish; and what am I going to do if I cannot sell anything. We are living in an atmosphere of death, and we know there is no salvation. W’b feel that we are lepers, condemned to slow and inevitable death. My lifo is narrowed down to a desperate fight for a scrap of food. At the present prices the minimum cost of living is two million roubles a month. This is normally £200,000; but £3O sterling is tho present rato of exchange for a rouble. Nobody is buying anything except jewellery, and I parted with mine long ago. I dread the coining winter, .with no heating, water, or drainage, practically no clothes left, and now famine and disease." —Aus.NZ. Cable Assn. NINE MILLION CHILDREN STARVING London, August 29. A. Russian wireless message states that over nine million children are now starving, and the prosperous provinces can receive only 48,000 of them. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. ? RELIEF MEASURES GREAT QUANTITIES OF FOOD NEEDED APPALLING MISERY INEVITABLE. (Roc. August 30, 5.5 p.m.) Riga, August 30. Dr. Nansen has concluded an agreement with the Soviet, embracing the operations of all voluntary famine relief organisations, and the feeding of the children of Sarntoff has begun. Seven million poods of rye for seed and one and a half million tons of wheat and rye for food are urgently needed in the Volga district alone. Tho Soviet declares that it is able to transport these quantities. Dr. Nansen points out that the needs are so great that the combined efforts of international charitable organisations will bo unable to prevent appalling misery. The Soviet has requested Dr. Nansen to approach European Governments with a view to securing a credit of .£10,000,000 for tho purchase of seeds and food, and has given hirn wide powers of distribution if the money is forthcoming.—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn. AMERICANS CAN FEED A MILLION CHILDREN. (Rec. August 30, 10.30 p.m.) Paris, August 29. Mr. Brown, head of tho American Relief Committee for Russia, states that Americans can undertake to feed a million children throughout the winter. — Reuter. APPEAL TO EUROPEAN COUNTRIES SOVIET’S COMMITTEE NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE RUSSIA. London, August 29. A non-political committee appointed by the Soviet, including Count Leo Tolstoy, to visit the various European countries, with a view to giving a true account of the famine conditions and appeal for relief, has been refused permission to leave Russia. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.