INTERNAL RUSSIA

Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1921, Page 3

INTERNAL RUSSIA

#TISTij »Ui\ AND N.Z. CABI.E ASSOCIATION. RUSSIAN ACTRESS’ LETTER. LONDON, An", I’ Tlie London “Morning Post” states “The following letter lms been received from a famous -Moscow actress. She is an actress of international repute:—“The tragedy of life here is that none of us are normal human l>cings. We are ghosts from the other world. The standard of normal life cannot he applied to Russians. The immediate problem is: “What am 1 goin to sell to-day? What can 1 sell to get half a pound of bread and a piece o fish, and what am I going to do if cannot sell anything? “We are living in an atmosphere of death, and know there is no salvation. We feel we are lepers condemned to a slow, inevitable death. -My life has been narrowed down to a desperate fight for a scrap of food. At present prices, the minimum cost of living is two million roubles a month, which normally would be 200,000 steiling, but is £3O sterling at the present rate of exchange. Nobody is buying anything except jewellry. I parted with mine long ago. I dread the coming winter, with no heating, nor watei drainage. I have practically no clothes left, and now there are famine an disease.” THE RELIEF MEASURES. RIGA, Aug. 30 Dr Nansen has concluded an agreement with the Soviet embracing th • operations of all volma'ry relief organisations. The feeding of ehildter. in Saratoff has already liegtin. Seven million pounds of rye seed, and 1} million , tons of wheat and rye for food are urgently needed in the Volga district | alone. . , The Soviet declares 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 be unable to prevent appalling misery. The Soviet has requested DrNansen to approach the European Governments with a view to securing a credit ot ten million sterling for the purchase of seeds and food, and has given him wide powers for distributing, if the loan is forthcoming. FEEDING CHI LDR EN. PARIS, Aug. 29. Mr Brown, head of the American Relief Committee for Russia, state that Americans can undertake to feed a million children throughout the v ' ter. _____