The New York herald., 1921-11-27
gibbs Sees HAVOC
OF RUSSIAN FAMINE
( Snow Covered Land Will Be
Big Cemetery Unless
Powers Give Help.
ESCAPE is CUT OFF
LARGEST Possible Attempt
LARGEST Possible Attempt
at Rescue Can Touch Only
Fringe of Distress.
TYPHUS ADDS TO MISERY
Parents Abandon Children in
Hope of Their Being Fed by
U. s. Relief Stores.

ny SIR PHILIP GIBBS.
Special Cable to THE New YORK HxRALp.
ON THE voLGA. Nov. 22.--I am writ
0g on river steamboat going UP the
volga to Kazan. the capital Of the new
TAtar State under the Soviet Republic
q Russia
Tho first SHOWS have fallen on the
oanks Of the volga, which rise steeply
aaong this stretch Of river. white be-
tween willow trees. Beyond, In Inn
nnense distances unbroken by trees or
hedges. the Russian fields lie deep
under tho snow.
II b winter that has como and under
<1is first snowfall are buried the last
hopes Of many millions OF people. /
cannot SEQ any hope Of rescue left
0pr many Of them, though think some
of those have seen starving to death
or near starvation still hold on des-
Dsrately to the odd chance that some
nairacle may save them-food from the
60viet Government, from foreign coun-
tries. from charity. God or man.
Miracles are not happening. They
are not likely TO happen.
Many Liksly Doomed TO Die.
What charity there is from man
American. mostly. because Of her big
resources, and British in small way.
touch the outer edge Of this vast
spreading region where hunger and
disease have absolute possession. The
river boats stop at the landing stages
below the Russian villages on the high
plateau. Always It is the same scene.
Outlined against the gray sky one
sees a line Of low wheeled carts drawn
by lean horses galloping hard to the
landing stage, where a small group OF
men and women are gathered to await
the boat. The men in sheepsldns and
fur caps look sturdy enough, the wom-
en- in bundles Of rags, squarely built
do not look hungry. Some of them
come aboard with bits OF meat to sell
or with eggs and milk. They are pa
tient in bartering and do not raise
lamentations but smile out of frank
peasant eyes.
Without more knowledge Of wha,
lies beyond the rivers banks one would
not guess that they are selling the
meat of the last cows that belong to
the village folk who. now they arc
killed (because there is no more fodder
for them) have no more milk for the
children. nothing else to sell, nothing
more between them and death but
chopped leaves and weeds with which
they make a kind of bread. causing
another kind of death. and some
blush chalk which they swallow to
MI their stomachs, though It hurts
them horribly.
should not know these things
unless had seen them. Now, coming
back, as look out the ships windows
at the white landscape beyond the
banks-getting fatter as we near
Kazan-I think Of the wooden VIII
lagos away out there. thickly scat
tered over hundreds of miles, lost in
this white loneliness, divided from
each other by a few versts, where
within long houses still neat and
clean. many peasant fathers and
mothers watch their children weaken
or lie groaning in their own agony Oh
sit very quietly waiting for almost
inevitable death.
Scenes Worse Than War.
have only been into few of these
villages, and 1t was hard going over
the snow for a pair Of horses. but the
things saw there are far worse than
anything I have seen in war, more
horrible, more heartrending
Villages further from the river are
IN worse state, I am told by every
one, than those reached. II they
are worse they will soon be cemeteries
for every one was hungry in those i
saw, some at the last gasp.
The boat on which I ann making
for Kazan is one of the last up the
Volga- In n week or two at most
all traffic will be tied up by the snow.
Already many landing stages have
been drawn in to prevent them from
being broken up. That means closing
the great highways of rescue for these
Russian people in the famine area.
All transport will now have to be
by sleigh and the American relief ad-
ministration, which is providing 150,-
900 daily meals to the children OF the
population of nearly one and a half
Kazan province. which has a child
million, will have to obtain 1900 horses
for the sleighs they will use.
AS the peasants are out Of oats and
the horses are dropping dead that will
not be easy. II will be wild adven-
ture anyhow, for there are no roads
and some journeys will be as long as
400 versts. or 200 miles. over snowfalls
with a chance of wolves on the way
Imagine the desolation fast closing
now round the hunger hunted, typhus
stricken villagesl
Already the snow and the stopping
OF the river traffic have cut off the
way Of escape. Abruptly the slow
creeping tide of folk fleeing from the
famine has been damned.
Some weeks ago the Volga towns
Me Kazan. Tetiushi, Simbirsk. Sara
toff and Samara, were congested with
these refugees evacuated under gov
ernment control or moving in nomadic
groups without authority. 1t was the
first thing I saw on entering Russia
across the frontier at Sebesh where
a few Red soldiers guarded trainload
OF refugees. They were packed into
closed trucks where they had been Iiv-
ing for weeks In the journey across