The Nenana daily news., 1919-01-29
SLAV SOLDIERS FREED BY HUN
 PAIRING BADLY

to Her starved ana alllng prisoners returning from Germany is in strik- ing contrast to the indifference with which soviet Russia receives the hundreds of thousands of emaciated forlorn soldiers of the Russian army who are struggling back into their ruined homeland, which is practically foodless and fuelless, snowbound and in the throes of zero weather tempered by only four or five hours of sunshine
 Englands king and queen have greeted many of the returning pris- oners. Hundreds of patriotic so- cieties have committees of loyal women on the docks where the ex- lies land to provide them with warm drinks. and food and express the gratitude of the nation for their self-sacrifice to the Entente cause. Bands play the familiar airs of the homeland as the victims of German prison hardships again set their feet on British soil. Flags line the streets and grateful citizens cheer the returning heroes.
 But it's far different picture in disorganized Russia. Dispatches from the Russo-German boundary announce that thousands of the consumptive and disabled Russians released by the Germans, insuffi- ciently clothed and without food, are dying along the highways of the once glorious empire of the Romanoff's.
 The red flag has replaced the emblem of the red, white and blue stripes under which the prisoners marched to battle. The cause for which they fought has been dis avowed by the Bolsheviki. Off cials are calloused to the sufferings of hunger and disease and wholly devoted to efforts to perpetuate the great political experiment they launched year ago.
 Conditions have gradually grown worse from week to week. Food has become scarcer. Coal and oil are not obtainable. Spanish sick ness has intensified the disorgani- zation. Premier Lenine has issued orders to border soviets that they must better physical conditions for the returning soldiers, but the food { supply is so limited and the con
 ditions are so hard for all the popu-
 lation in Central Russia that even
 if officials were inclined to heed
 the mandates of the Bolsheviki
 premier, they probably would be helpless because of the utter lack of supplies and indifference of the
 great mass of red supporters. For months the American Young Mems Christian Association and <, the American Red Cross attempted to soften the return of Russian prisoners to their devastated home
 land. Receiving camps were made sanitary by these organizations. Simple foodstuffs were provided. Workers were placed on hospital trains to clean them up and cigar
 cites and games were supplied to
 the patients who were able to sit
 up. Teachers were also placed in
 many of the receiving Hospitals
 in Moscow who offered instruction
 in industrial lines and taught pris- oners to read.
 But the Bolshevik government hindered this work systematically and finally stopped it entirely. Off, cers of the Young Mems Christian l Association were arrested and im- prisoned. Some of the prominent Bolsheviki objected violently to the association because it had Chris l tian" in it's name. Others held that
 both the American Red Cross and the American Young Mems Chris tion Association should be pre- vented from doing anything which might win favor for the United States among Russians.
 It is of interest to know that