RUSSIAN FAMINE.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1921, Page 5

RUSSIAN FAMINE.

WORST STORIES CONFIRMED. HEAVY DEATH RATE. PRINCESSES SEARCH GARBAGE. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, Sept. 3. Professor Jerome Davis, of Dartmouth College, has returned from Russia. He confirms the .worst stories of the famine. Cholera, typhus and dysentery are killing off the population at an unprecedented rate, 50 per cent in many villages. The position in Moscow and Petrograd is better, but former intellectuals and aristocrate are reduced to “the sorriest shifts. Princesses are searching garbage tins, peddling potatoes and sleeping in attics. A notable instance is that of General Brusiloff ,who has sold all his belongings for food, and is now domiciled in a few rooms,, his wife doing the housework.

DR. NANSEN’S STATEMENT. FOUR MILLION TONS OF FOOD NEEDED. London, Sept. 4. The Daily Chronicle interviewed Dr. Nansen, who said that in a district with thirty millions of people the year’s crop would only provide 160 pounds of food, including animals, that is half a pound of food daily to keep a man and beast alive. Four million tons of food were required, of which two millions must come from outside. The railways and waterways are adequate for transport if the Soviet authorities co-operate as they promise. Without the Soviet organisation nothing can be done. The autumn sowings are the pressing necessity. Dr. Nansen, therefore, is sending corn from Latvia, Esthonia and Lithuania. The total cost of relief will be forty millions sterling. It would be a fatal policy to allow twenty to thirty million Russians to perish. Free buying and selling are now allowed throughout Russia. The workers are paid wages in cash, houses are being sold to private people, as the Soviet finds this ths only way to keep the houses in repair. Dr. Nansen concluded: “I am convinced that there is no present alternative in Russia to the Soviet Government. Lenin is the dominant figure. No preparations are being made to wage war.” NANSEN’S SURVEY CHALLENGED.

The Daily Telegraph says that Dr. Nansen is expressing views of a startling character. He appears to think Bolshevik officialdom not so incompetent, or corrupt as has been pdrtrayed. Dr. Nansen’s optimistic survey is widely challenged.