THE FAMINE IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 16 November 1901, Page 3

THE FAMINE IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA.

Saiferings of Siberian Emigrants.

San Francisco, Oct 24. Correspondence sent to the Associated Press from St Petersburg, dated October sth, says that, acting under additional information from the Governor of the province of Samara, the Minister of the Interior has officially proclaimed famine conditions in five districts in this province. This means that the bad harvest has already made itself so keenly felt that special medical and relief organisation is deemed necessary. It is likely the list will be added to from time to time during the

winter. The Minister has also published a detailed report of the relief given to seven Siberian districts. Forty thousand roubles were assigned. Present indications are that little information about the famine will be published in the Russian newspapers' which is not given out by the Minister of the Interior. The papers have been given to understand that incorrect or coloured articles about the famine will not be tolerated, and Russian editors know when they have _ been warned. The bad harvest in portions of Siberia last year and this year have had the effect of turning a part_ of the tide of Siberian emigration back into Russia. According to an official source, nearly 1000 emigrants and nearly 20,000 men, sent by the peasant communes to spy out the land, went to Siberia between January Ist and September 19ch, and a very large number have returned. In addition to the famine, a circumstance that deters emigration and occasions the return of many is the exhaustion of the available farm land, which is a fact not fully understood abroad. Parts of Siberia are already fully occupied, and this is true of all really good and accessib’e land in Western Siberia. Recent settlers have been assigned lands distant from the railways or navigable rivers, or have received forest or marsh land, which would not pay them to till under present conditions. It is the plain truth that there ii little more room for peasants there now. There seems to be room for another class, for the Government has reserved some lands for noble- . men, and sold considerable tracts _to titled families, avowing the determination \ to strengthen the noble element in Siberia. Peasants have transplanted their slipshod methods of cultivation from one district and another of Russia, to Siberia, so this virgin country is reduced also to chronic want and periodical famines. The presence of large land-owners is regarded as a good leaven, agriculturally and politically.