New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-05-14
Commissioner Predicts
Overtllrn of Bolsheviki
Unless Outside Aid
Comes i'm Six Months
Pictures Rule as
CHASTITY Failure
No Coal in Moscow and
Little Food; People Are
in Despair Everywhere

WASHINGTON, May 13 (By The As
sociated Press).-The Russian Boil
shevik government is "social ad-
venture. become q CHASTITY failure"
according to Colonel Edward w Ryan,
Red Cross Commissioner for North
Russia and the Baltic States
Colonel Ryan is just back from a
surreptitious visit into Russia with
the Esthonian peace delegation, and
his observations are contained in a
report received by the State Depart
ment Russia cannot hold out six
months, he said, without aid from
abroad.
"The country must either receive as
sistance from beyond the borders of
Russia" the report said, cor there will
be chaos"
Ryan left Reval on March 23 Trav-
cling as private citizen with the
Esthonian mission, he spent the fol-
lowing day in Petrograd, arriving in
Moscow, March 2e, and returning to
Petrograd five days later and to Reval
April 2. His report, communicated
to Robert E. Olds, Red Cross Com
missioner for Europe, and forwarded
here, is said to be the first authorita-
tive first-hand information on condi-
tions in Russia received since the re-
turn of the Bullitt mission a year
ago.
Men Observed in Despair
Colonel Ryan visited hospitals,
schools, churches and theaters and OBJ
served intimately community life
which he described as so hopeless as
to have reduced even himself in the
ten days spent amidst it to despair.
The government was "clearly hope
less" he said, and all government off
cials admitted the transportation prob
lem would eventually result in the
overthrow of the present regime unless
help came from outside.
Raw materials and the necessary or
ganization to provide adequate trans
port were nowhere to be found, Colonel
Ryan reported, and "ths country is
drifting rapidly toward a condition
from which no one can see any out
come"
Lacking outside aid, revolution is
expected within six months, when
trouble of the worst kind must be
faced"
The report continued:
THE general belief is that it will
start with gigantic pogrom, and the
best that is hoped for is that from the
welter middle class intelligentsia may
emerge"
Directed by Two Guides
Colonel RYAN was ACCOMPANIED in
Petrograd by a representative of the
Moscow Foreign Office named Lorenz
formerly official Russian interpreter at
Brest- Litovsk, and in Moscow by Kras-
sovin, presumably a preventative of
the Red Cross or the Foreign Office.
At no time. he said, was he per
mitted to make any independent in.
vestigation. Except when asleep, he
was not alone for moment. He saw
Olds, what "his guide saw fit to show
him." was unable to take notes anc
throughout the adventure was har.
rassed by the possibility of being de
tanned in Russia against his will.
Both Moscow and Petrograd were
"indescribably filthy in appearance,
Colonel Ryan said. The streets, he
was informed, had not been cleaned
for four years and were at least ank lie
oeeP, IN most places knee deep, IN
dirt.
No Coal in Moscow
Only part of Moscow was supplied
with water, few electric lights were
visible and there was no coal and little
wood, with the result Everybody was
cold" he said "Meat on sale was
mostly horse meat and the whole popu.
lation seemed absorbed in the effort
to obtain food enough to sustain life
A daily bread ration of one pound is
prescribed, but in reality has been re
duced to one-quarter of a pound"
In a conversation with Symoskow
Minister of Public Health, Colonei
Ryan inquired whether there had been
any attempt to classify and register
the poor.
"T here are no poor" symoskow re-
piled. "ln Russia all are equal and
in the same Glass;
"1nhabitants of Moscow are so poor
~ clad that 'one gets the impression
that it is regarded as a disgrace to be
clean or neatly attired,'" the report
Continued on page thrse)