STUPENDOUS PRICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 February 1943, Page 3

STUPENDOUS PRICE

BEING PAID BY RUSSIANS FOR VICTORY

LOSSES IN BATTLE

AND IN OCCUPIED TERRITORY.

TOTAL AT LEAST TEN MILLION.

(By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, February 7. Maurice Hindus, the noted author and correspondent, writing in the Nev/ York “Herald-Tribune” after a seven months’ tour of Russia, says that the Soviet Union is paying a stupendous price for its victories.

“It is safe to assert that at least 4,000,000 Russians have already lost their lives, but this, is the smaller part of the casualties, for the Russians have suffered a far greater number of deaths in the German-held territories,” he writes. “Estimates of the Russian dead in the conquered territory run to between 10,000,000 and 15,000,000, but even accepting an estimate of 6,000,000 as near the truth, it means that at least 10,000,000 have died since the outbreak of war.

“Happy as the Russians are over their successes, they are acutely aware that they are fighting on Russian soil and that Russian towns, villages and cities are being devastated. “Russia is a land of widows, of whom there are millions, and there are also many millions of orphans and prisoners of war. The Russians feel their losses too deeply to derive consolation from the world’s plaudits, to which the Russian Press gives little space. The people are making tremendous sacrifices. The shops are practically empty. It is impossible to buy shoes and clothes. Food is more than rigidly rationed ,and fresh vegetables are very ' H “But the best of everything goes to the soldiers, who are among the bestclad and best-fed in the world.”