Weekly journal-miner., 1919-01-15
WARM WELCOME FOR RETURNED
 WAR CAPTVES
ENGLA AND'S RECEPTION FOR HER PRISONERS IS IN MARKED CONTRAST TO THAT ACCORDED RE- TURNING RUSSIANS.
By AssociatedsPress.

1 by EaoSOCldleua 1TeSS.
 LONDON, Jan. 10-England's wei
 come to her starved and ailing pris-
 oners returning from Germany is in
 striking contrast to the indifference
 with which soviet Russia receives
 the hundreds of thousands of eman-
 ciated, forlorn soldiers of the Rus
 sian 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.
 England's king and queen have
 greeted many of the returning pris-
 oners. Hundreds of patriotic soci-
 cites have committees of loyal wo-
 men on the docks where the cxiles
 land to provide them with warm drinks and food and express the grat-
 itude of the nation for their self sacrifice to the entente cause. Bands play the familiar airs of the home land as the victims of German pris- on hardships again set their feet on British soil Flags line the streets and grateful citizens cheer the re turning heroes.
 But it's a far different picture in disorganized Russia Dispatches from the Russo-German boundary announce that thousands of the con sumptive and disabled Russians re-. leased by the Germans, insufficiently clothed and without food, are dying along the highways of the once glor- ious empire of the Romanoffs.
 The red flag has replaced the em- blem of red, white and blue stripes under which the prisoners marched to battle The cause for which they fought has been disavowed by the Bolsheviki. Officials are calloused to the suffcrings of hunger and dis ease and wholly devoted to efforts to perpetuate the great political ex- pertinent they launched year ago.
 Conditions have gradually grown worse from week to week Food has become scatcer. Coal and oil are not obtainable. Spanish sickness has intensified the disorganization. Premier Lenine has issued orders to | border sovicts that they must better | the physical conditions for the re- turning soldiers, but the food supply | is so limited and the conditions are SO hard for all the population in Gen. .ral Russia that even if the officials | were inclined to heed the mandates of tine Bolshevik premier, they prob ably would be helpless because of he utter lack of supplies and indif- terence of the great mass of red sup Dortcrs.
 For months the American Young Mems Christian Association and the American Red Cross attempted to soften the return of Russian prison ITS to their devastated homeland. Receiving camps were made sanitary ,y these organizations. Simple food ,tuffs were provided Workers were placed on hospital trains to clean hem up and cigarettes and games we're supplied to the patients who we're able to sit up. Teachers were .lso placed in many of the receiving hospitals who offered instruction in industrial lines and taught illiterate prisoners to read.
 But the Bolsncvik government hin tered this work systematically and inally stopped it entirely. Officers f the Young Mems Christian. Asso- iation were arrested and imprison- d. Some of the prominent Bolshe- iki objected violently to the associ- $ ton because it had Christian" in Is name. Others held what both the lmerican Red Cross and the Ameri- I an Young Mems Christian Associa- l ion should be prevented from doing l nything which might win favor for he United States among the Rus $ ians. c