New-York tribune., 1919-12-28
Red" Rule in Riga
Called Nightmare of
Horror by Woman
Countess de Lacy Describes
Bolshevik Excesses and
Suffering of People, Who
Lack Food and Clothing
Nete York Tribune
Foreign Press Bureau

Foreign Press Bureau
LONDON. Dec. Son January 1,
1919. the Red troops marched into
Tacy in "The London Times "The
order was given TO receive them on the
main Alexander Street with flowers
and enthusiasm. The order. suppose,
rss executed. There is an old Rus
.;sn saving. Give trough and the
n;gs will appear The trough was
Z here and the pigs rejoiced, no doubt.
Int on the town there lay general
air Of CONSERVATION.
The streets were full of people
with bags and baskets storming every
t;nd of foodshop in their endeavor to
bring home as much food AS possible.
Prices rose every hour. Lucky were
fhose who could pay the fantastic
sums demanded and lay in store, be-
cause few days later all shops were
nati-nalized' and closed, and the
markets we're empty. There was much
talk about large government shops of
the future, where every working man
and woman for wonderfully low prices
would get all the necessities of life
and the 'boureeosie' nothing.
Trading in Secrecy
"Meanwhile, 'bourgeoisie' or not. it
was impossible to buy pin or a
potato. Ii you did buy anything it
had to be done in strictest secrecy.
mound Of onions, so rubles, bottle of
milk s rubles, a pound of butter 60 ru-
HES. pound Of black corntiower 80
rub,es.
The peasants had no faith in
soviet morey and would sell onlv for
Czarist rubles. A peasant told me
Of rather quaint bargain. He had
consented to sell a pig to Red
Guard for soviet money, on condition
that the pig should be entirely envel-
oped and hidden in sheets made Of
banknotes. But of course everybody
could not pay such prices and the
majority Of the non-communistic pop
ulat;on was literally starving.
Il saw q decently dressed gentleman
sitting on bench in square with an
empty basket in his hand. dead from
hunger Such 2 sight was not uncom-
mon. We fed on unpeeled potatoes and
black -four boiled in water, and even
tha. was hard TO obtain. There were
four categories Of bread cards, which
were supposed Qeaving the bourgeoisie
nearly breadless) TO supply the work
ing class with about half pound per
day.
But in reality. except the com
munists, very few ever received the
bread due TO them according to their
cards, To get it one had to stand
hours in an endless queue, and it was
almost unsa.able when YOU did get it
There were peoples kitchens. Queues
of sveral hundreds Of shivering, hun
CRY people stood hour after hour in the
frost or rain to receive plate Of
watery soup for so roubles-
AL Shops Closed
The streets looked dismal; all the
shops were closed and hungry-looking
people shabbiy dressed hurried alons,
with haunted look on their thin faces
The only richly dressed women were
the communist battalion, ~Nho walked
about with guns, acting partly as q
kind OF police partly as spies, taking Il
particularly active and 9erociops pa.
never saw such malignant. low, truly
wicked faces as those OF these gallant
Red Amaznns. Nobody was safe any
where
TO dress Z little smarter, 70 preaen.
little mora civilized appearance,
mere smile even, was enough to be ar
rested or sent to fulfil some dirty
work or dig graves for the 'anti~1'ss,o-
lutionists' who had been shot. When
there was rumor Of the White troops
advancing q decree was issued forbid
ding the bourgeoisie to smile in tha
street, this being regarded as showing
unseemly joy One of my pupils, a
young student walking ona evening
with g lady and smiling as young men
generally 90 in ladies' society, was
actually arrested and only set ire in
the morning after having given the
particular cnnmissary 400 ruhles. It
was rather an expensive srnilp-
Degrees and ReQuisifions
If we had little bread, we had many
DEGREES Every morning We uoka in
horrible anticipation OF soma new form
Of freedom in store for US One day