STARVING RUSSIA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2038, 25 March 1907, Page 1

STARVING RUSSIA.

GIRLS SOLD FOR FOOD. Tho special correspondent of tho London Tribune gives a terrible account of tlio famine country in Russia. lio writes:— “Tetiushky, 70 miles south of Kaznn, is tlio centre of, porhaps, tho worst of all tho famine districts. In a jonrnoy of 300 miles I found, with the exception of a low favourablysituated villages the whole population was sulfering from hunger. At every point my arrival was tho sign for a gathering of the peasants, who, in the hope that aid had at last reached thorn, crowded round my sledge and begged piteously for succour. Alas 1 that I could bring nothing but a promise they could hardly bo expected to understand that their case should bo heard in a country whore if tlioro is poverty tliore is also wealth, and whore Gourkos and Lidvals .are not encouraged. FROST AND DISEASE. “It is not only that the people’s poor stock of food is exhausted. There is a famous Russian picture of an old poasant woman parting with her last cow—for famine is no evil under tho Tsars. I reckon that in the district of Tetiushky the vil-

lagers have sold ono-half of their horses and cattle—on which their future depends as surely as their present does on flour—and often they have sold' their samovars and wretched .spare clothes for broad. Tho lack of fuel is almost as cruel a feature of the situation as tho lack of sustenance. In each village which I visited about a fifth of tho families had abandoned their own houses—huts would be a better description in most cases —and wore huddled together in small and filthy hovels, which must soon be, where they are not already, centres of disease. They had been driven to strip the thatch and woodwork from their homes by fear of death from cold. In a yet larger proportion of cases 1 found that there remained bread enough for only one day in three. Of the ghastly substitutes for honest flour, by which this lack is made good I need say nothing; for some specimens of acorn powder and other weird mixtures will already have reached you. “In such circumstances the spread of preventible disease is inevitable. I found that scurvy was beginning to ravage the villages of Tiurma, Shemiakino, Liaslii, Tiutchurino, Biclovolojka, Atabaevo, Barisli, and Burmash. Dysontry and typhus are also becoming very common and are worst in the villages of Schemiakino and Janaslievo. I was informed that practically a-half of the population was suffering from eye diseases, directly attributable to insufficient food. THE GIRL MARKET.

“Tho shocking report that children had been sold by desperate parents for food proves to be only too well founded. I have positively ascertained the facts of the sale of 14 girls. These horrible transastions took place in the town of Tetinshi and the six villages of Tiurma, Kliaslievo, Burniash, Denshevo, Balaevo, and Kullar. The prices obtained ranged from 60 to 120 roubles (six

to 12 guineas) in each casm but undoubtedly there are many more which have been kept secret lest the authorities should interfere in the result where they remain so signally indifferent as to the cause.

“Government aid is, so far, utterly and sometimes ridiculously inadequate. A pud (361 b) of corn- is supposed to last a month, but, in fact lasts only for 10 or 15 days. Moreover, the quality is so bad, mixed as it is with herbs, etc., that the peasants often try to resell it. In tho wliolo of my journey I did not find a single kitchen of the official Red Cross Society, some that had been established having been closed for lack of funds. Tho Imperial Free Economical Society is giving gallant aid, and its hundred kitchens, spread about the most needy villages, are working very satisfactorily. Its funds are, however, altogether insufficient, and 60 per cent, of the suffering pojmlation is still without relief. If more help is not soon forthcoming it is to be feared that the spring will see a terrible visitation of disease and wholesale starvation.”