FAMINE RELIEF FUND.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4405, 24 April 1922, Page 2

FAMINE RELIEF FUND.

LAST NMWTS LMTlift CANVASS FOR FUNDS. The lecture announced to take place by Mr : Richards, of the land Russian Famip Relief was duly held on Sunday night, HD worship the Mayor (Mr P. E. Brcnan) presiding. ' The Tragedy of R.ussia, the speaker said, was more awful than any other sorrow that -»J[iad afflicted humnaity. The papers had never told one half of that pitiful story. No humane person could refuse aid in the face of the anguished appeals by Russian mothers for succour to save their children. . The person who could turn a deaf oar to such appeals was Hard: ly fit to live in a Christian community. Mr Richards enumerated various figures, shewing the magnitude of dhe disaster, as publihed in the ’’Gazette/’ in the report of Mr Richard’s lecture in the Ohinemuri Coun* . ty Chambers. Drought, war—military ani civil—and seven years of blockade had brought about an appalling condition; of a scope and intensity that baffled man’s mind to grasp in all its dreadful consequences. Starvation and disease had- resulted in more deaths in Russia than all the natipns who perished in the late war put together—leaving the British nation alone out. Dr. Nansen, Mr Hoover - (American Commissioner), and Me D. Lloyd George (Imperial Prime Minister) had all three explicitly sta-ied that the famine ; area was governed by five governments, and that n<J political or, other influences ed the rapid and equitable distribution of whatever relief was sent te. the starving populace. The popula*. tions were dying, in various districts l people were endeavouring to subsist on all sorts of wretched food, including garbage. In a Volga Valley district one child in every four of a number of 70,000 was picked out to be fed on the scanty fare available, the remainder having fo be left, to perish, One and aiihalf pence per day fed a person for a day, there being the most scientific organisation that the world had ever’seen carrying out th® relief work, so the food should be eked out to the last ounce to save as many as possible. And yet the people were dying like flies. Sir Phillip Gibbs: (the famous war correspondent) had.,seen 30,000 children in a famine-stricken district fed on blue and clay mixedi witfc leaves. As a result the poor, mites became emaciated and died, their bodies being nothing but skin and bone. The American Government and nation were doing magnificently in relief work ; other Governments were assisting. It was strange that the New-Zealand Government had not: thought fit to follow in the same humane path. Seventy, per cent, ot; the crops had failed, and the remaining 30 per cent, yielded only 901 b—; instead of 90 bushels—per acre. Not, a penny-piece subscribed in the Em-j pire was wasted, all the relief beingunder British control. Fifteen millions must perish by. the end of July, despite all .the efforts-, hitherto made; never in the 'world’i history had .there been such bn ap-; palling tragedy. One relief train wa< delayed, for three days, the reason; being that all along the line there;; were hundreds and thousands Of dead' and dying waiting for relief. In a large town four gravediggers' had the task of trying to bury 300 corpses awaiting interment. Starvation wasa gradual, slow, torturing death, worse than deaths by railway -acci-, derits and such like, Where relief was -rapidly obtainable. ' — The Russian Red Army, had sown 150,000 acres in,grain, and thousands of gardens, the harvest .pf which it was hoped to reap next Augustj ;

New Zealand was the only country that had not officially (through its Government) responded to the call of starving, humanity. It was hoped that the Government would give extended credit to Russia, and send the surplus meat, .butter, cheese, etc., to the famine stricken areas. This would clear the glut on the market and have good economic results for the primary producers. The Queensland Government donated £10,000*,._ plus foodstuffs ; the Federal Government had donated £50,000 and a million bushels o® wheat; all the small , nations of the Balkans had responded magnificently; as had even Poland,- which was recently at war against. Russia. The Polish workers were giving one day’s pay per month to ‘he relief of the starving Russians. Human life was perishing at the rate o£ a million every three weeks in Russia’s famine provinces. The British miners hed donated £lO 000, and z the British Government £lOO,OOO. Miss Thorpe had, in her campaign in Australia, collected £550,000. It was New Zealand's duty to join the great company of life-savers. .If the whole of New Zealand was, like the famine districts of Russia, swept clear so that there was not a blade of) grass to be seen from Auckland to the Bl we would then, like the Rus? sians, have to depend on outside'relief. Let us rise nobly to the appal-, ling occasion.

The Mayor appealed to the citizens, to give generous assistance. The Rev. F. McDonald moved thata coriimittee be formed, consisting of : the Mayor, the ministers of religion,' Mr D. Leach, and Mr Geo. Fallon, with power to add to their number. — : Carried. ’ Vote.' of thanks to the speaker and. the chairman, and. to Messrs Woods> . and Jennings (proprietors of the, ’ theatre, which was given free), concluded the meeting. • < At . the subsequent committee meeting the Mayor was appointed chairman and the town clerk (Mr P« *.?•' Furley) secretary. It was decided f;hat ,a canvass be organised by the churches and other organisations. - , £ The collection in the hall amounted 11 to £ll 13s -id.