RUSSIA’S COLLAPSE.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 August 1921, Page 5

RUSSIA’S COLLAPSE.

ALLIES suggest help. WHOLE WORLD INVOLVED. DISEASE WORSE THAN WAR. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received August 11, 5.5 p.m. Paris, August 11. The Supreme Council yesterday debated the Russian famine question. M. Briand suggested that as Russia had helped the Allies they ought to join America and others in administering relief through the Red Cross. Mr. Lloyd George pointed out that such efforts were not comprehensive enough, as the Red Cross could not work the loaves and fishes miracle. The question ought to be considered on a large scale, as it was not only a question of Russia, but the whole world was involved. He did not admire the Soviet Government, but he thought relief was impossible without its co-operation, owing to its control .of transport, and official machinery. It was not a political but a humanitarian question, and unless the Allies helped, typhus and cholera would destroy more lives than the war. Lord Curzon (British Foreign Secretary) said operations only began with the despatch of relief ships. ThAy must develop the organisation, which would divide the famine area into, districts and prevent the accumulation of the population in any locality, ration the food, and establish hospitals. He believed the following conditions were essential to the existence of the Soviet Government: The formation of an international relief authority, and the enlistment of an expert commission to report at the earliest.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

BOLSHEVIKS’ MALIGNANT NATURE. TYRANNY AND CHAOS. London, August 10. The Daily Telegraph publishes a poignant letter from a Russian correspondent at Moscow, stating: “What a pity you could . not have seen Kamenoff, nervous and pale, I haltingly admitting to a meeting of the | people whom the Bolsheviks have tried for three years to destroy that the Soviet was I impotent to deal with the famine. Rei member the Government did not call the meeting. The slaves of yesterday met and demanded it, and such was the Bolsheviks’ panic that they had to comply. Hence the creation of the non-political committee which sent out the international appeal. Although now forced to accept assistance i from those whose destruction they have I sought hitherto, the Bolsheviks have not changed their essentially malignant nature. “Neither has the Soviet power to change the machinery of their monstrous administration. If the food is handed over to the Soviet it means that the Reds and the drone officials will get everything and the poor people nothing. Whatever is done, outside organisations must control the distribution. The Soviet will oppose this bitterly, but it must not be otherwise. “I think the famine has given the Bolsheviks the knock-out. At Lenin’s teatable they discussed ways and means of escaping, comparing notes on foreign places for an asylum. England was much favored. Lenin is a wily bird, and will take good care we do not hang him. The real culprits are sure to leave betimes, and we, their unwilling slaves, may yet be destroyed by the people’s first furious onslaught. “The fear of famine has gone too far. Great territories have become empty and overrun by weeds. God’s will be done. Forgive my incoherences, but I am always hungry and depressed. Do not believe there is a Government in Russia. The Soviet tyrants simply control the big cities, several railroads and a little food. The rest is all chaos.” Petrograd reports state that special trains are removing 70,000 children from the famine areas. RELIEF FROM AMERICA. SCHEME TO OPERATE SOON. Received August' 11, 8.50 p.m. Washington, August 10. Mr. H. C. Hoover, in accepting an invitation from the Swiss President to send a representative to an international conference of relief- societies regarding aid for Russia, pointed out that the famine in Russia was beyond the resources of all the available private charities in the world, especially in these times of economic hardship. “Relief,” Mr. Hoover says, “even were funds available for food, involves the rehabilitation of transportation and the agriculture industry, necessitating measures which again are beyond the reach of charity.”

Mr. Hoover adds that each national relief society should proceed independently. American relief measures in Russia are proceeding, preliminary steps are being taken and he believes that actual relief work will soon begin. American prisoners in Russia are beginning to return to Riga.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. BRITISH APPEAL FOR HELP. IMPOTENCY OF SOVIET. London, August 10. The Imperial War Relief Fund Committee has issued an appeal signed by the Lord Mayor of London, the Archbishop of Canterbury and many notables for help to Russia. The funds collected will be administered by the Red Cross. The Berlin correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that Lenin, in his disingenious appeal for help, seeks to make it appear to the Russian proletariat that whatever help comes will be the effort of the international proletariat, not of the capitalists. Rome, August 10. The Pope, in a letter to the Papal Secretary, states that he has invited the Christians of the world to help the faminestricken Russians. PINSK IN FLAMES. ENDING MISERY OF CHILDREN. Warsaw. August 10. There is a great fire at Pinsk (Russia). Over 300 houses and churches have already been destroyed. The forests outside the town are also on fire. Terrible stories come from Saratoff, where parents are drowning their children to save them from starvation.