The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1921. RUSSIA’S SLOW DEATH.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 July 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1921. RUSSIA’S SLOW DEATH.

Civilisation may well stand aghast at the awful spectacle presented by Russia at the present time—a country with some 190 millions of population in the grip of famine, and a panic regime of terrorists in despair over finding relief for the shocking state of affairs they have brought about. Soviet. Russia is realising to the

full what it is to be undei 1 the rule of a small group of men, mostly Russian or German Jews, obeying the oi’ders of Lenin, the new Ivan the Terrible, and his War Minister, Trotsky, who first disarmed the people and then starved them into submission to Soviet rule, food being refused to those political opponents who were not shot, while torture was applied deliberately on a great scale, and with a cruelty that has never been surpassed, Forced labor and the de-

privation of all freedom of action reduced the workers to a state of animal obedience to the whip, food being refused those who did not obey orders, while those who did work received rations totally inadequate to sustain health and strength. The country, over-run and despoiled by Soviet troops, as well as Lettish and Chinese mercenaries, has been brought to the stage when production was neg lected because produce was seized without payment or barter, and the lack of transport facilities for such foodstuffs as could be obtained for the cities caused the people therein to .perish from hunger and disease. s It was a return to the conditions of the middle ages when the whole country was in anarchy and ravaged by bands of freebooters and brigands. The French observer, M. Labry, who had seen Bolshevism at work, recently stated that it had resulted in “the ruin of economic life, the waste of accumulated wealth, and the death of a whole community in civil war and famine.” The proof of these terrible charges stands revealed to-day in the appalling famine that exists in Russia —a country that was, and still ought to be, the granary of Europe, yet is unable to feed itself. The horrors of the situation, as depicted by the Riga correspondent of the Daily Express, are such as to arouse a feeling of wonder that such a national tragedy is possible. In one zone alone thirty mSllion people, “after eating bats, dogs, and rats, are now fleeing from their homes in a desperate. search for food,” raiding cattle and grain as they go, storming passing trains, and devastating the country. What is to become of the millions who follow after and find nothing wherewith to appease their- hunger? The plight of those in the cities is far worse. Truly it xs the most dreadful tragedy- that has ever afflicted Russia, anti tb.t pity of it is there is no remedy iu sight. The most that, can be hoped for is such alleviation as ea -. be supplied by other nations, bul. even that will not suffice to cope with the grave peril of the starving soldiers goaded into revolt by the need for food, and committing barbarous outrages that will greatly add to the terrors of the situation. The appeal for relief issued by Maxim Gorky will not fail to arouse the utmost sympathy, but what security can be given to ensure relief measures being applied for the purpose for which they are intended? No help worthy of the name can be expected from the starving soldiers in keeping order and preventing pillage, or even to ensure freedom from molestation of those in charge of relief measures and supplies. The conditions laid down in Mr. Hoover’s reply' are reasonable and necessary, but even if they are accepted there is no power in Russia that can carry them out, so that the chances of successfully coping with disease and. famine are veryslight. Yet civilisation cannot stand by with folded hands and see these millions of desperate people die of starvation, sickness and brutality. Even at the risk of partial failure, some effort must be made to combat the evils that exist. No faith can be placed in a military dictatorship by Trotsky. Practically that is what has brought Russia to its present terrible state. Nothing but the overthrow of . Bolshevism will give Russia a chance of revitalisation. -Meanwhile the position admits of no delay, and though the risk may be great, it should not deter the nations from endeavoring to save 'the Russian people from that slow death with which they are menaced—the inevitable result of Bolshevism.