Norwich bulletin., 1921-08-08

J American relief workers who are about to go into famine-stricken Russia prob ably will find 12,OOO,0OO persons in the Volga Basin actually starving and twJ thirds of the entire population of Russia on hunger rations according to Mrs. Mar guerite E. Harrison the American news paper woman recently released from prison in Soviet Russia.
 This Mrs. Harrison attributes to in- ternal economical and political disintegra- | tion under Soviet rule, to the ravages of the internecine wars against admiral Kol- chak and General Wrangel and to the ! drought. What the drought failed 10 accomplish, conscription of farm hands and the requisitioning of grain for the Red armies completed. The result is that tslN Ukrainian republic, narnlaly the i granary of Russia, can barely sustain itself Siberia h in the same predica- ment. Neither region is willing to pro- vide grain fer the famine sections and migration of peasants is now proceeding completely halting the autumn planting. l The food situation, Mrs. Harrison said. also will nave a bearing on the public health, although the Russian sanitary corps had the cholera situation in hand | when she left Moscow at the end of July. The famine area begins between Nizhai- , Novgorod and Kazan on the north and extends southward in a broad belt to Tsaritsin on both side of the Volga, em- ] bracing the Tartar republic provinces of Simbirsk, Ssmara, Saratove, Penza and Tambov; tne Tcherkask republic. parts of Riazan and Tua, and a large part of the province of Ufa to the foothills of the Ural mountains.
 Famine conditions have been worse by fron nrfa a nd no i'm of local distribution organizations. which lhave been viGor5usl.t attacked by the newspapers during the past few weeks. For instance, S5 per cent of the milk spoiled in the Moscow government was due to the defective organization of the
 receiving stations.
 Pitiful stories of suffering are told on all sides. The peasants of Tamboy
 are reported to be eating bread made OF
 straw, potato parings and weeds. In th'
 Novenski prison where Mrs. Harrison wa:
 detained the bread was adulterated witt
 a flour which appeared to have beer
 made from cowpess. Kasha, the stapl'
 cereal of the peasants, has been re
 placed by hageolet beans, which. are i'm
 ported
 Mrs. Harrison visited the volga Basi
 with the British labor delegation a yea kago. when she observed symptoms of th
 appre aching food shortage This, sh
 says. is not the result of the crop fall ure but of the economic conditions pre-
 vailing since the beginning of the revolu tion. Duding the Kolchak campaigl provinces were overrun with the resul that the fields were not cultivated an' the popuation scattered. This was tn
 only reason why the official figures fo
 1920 showed that the number of farr I 9 per cent since 1s1s
 When the Soviet retook the volg e iprovinces in 1919 they proceeded vigor
 ously. and in the main efficiently. to csr
 " out the program of agricultural re ,, construction. They succeeded fairly we n though lacking in man-power. machiner \ and fertilizer. The Commissariat of agri t culture began a campaign of education
 sending to the provinces trained proI
 ganda workers and technical nteratuI - erperts.
 r. In the spring of last year. Mrs Harr d son said. the reserve supplies which ha l. been hidden. were nearly exhausted, bI
 the crop prospects were good This va
 the situation when the Polish campsig # brought further conscriptions and requis ) tions in addition to the natural produC q tax. At the close of 1920 the goverr - l
 adequate and in February the revo
 hindered the importation for time 1t foodstuffs from Siberia.
 In the carly spring the Soviet institute r free trade and re-organized the coope l. ative societies in the provinces but the.
 measures were not productive of gre;
 practical results and the people pinne t their hopes on good harvest.
 Q Then the drought set in with an a most total loss to the crors in the Vole T region. resulting in a hopeless situatio
 Alarming reports began to pour in
 Moscow. rot only of famine but of t ' mass migrstions from the Volga region y which the government still Is unable : control Last year the Soviet encourag' J. emigration, when 13s,esS persons we
 transferred to Siberia. realizing the thre
 of famine which had been growing f - several years. The emigrants now oft' n are greeted by the natives with clul ,yf and rifles, but the governments effor
 to stem the tide of emigration Is wit
 out appreciable results.
 f During July according to Mrs. Harr If son the heavy rains spoiled much of tl f. hay crop. The government is making ; 10 effort to save the livestock by conce
 trating herds on the natural pastufai
 slopes of the UrsI mountains. IT t. peasants however. are opposing this pl; IS fearing they will never get back the Id cattle.
 E. The health situation Mrs Harris' Is says. is distressing. While cholera
 under control. incomplete figures show
 there had been 34.o0o cases to the el t. of July most of them in the governme t. of Astrakhan. There were only 1s5 cas l. in Moscow up to July 25 and the heal b. department which Mrs. Harrison sa Is was efficient. had done spendid work
 had undertaken compulsory inoculsti
 throughout the country and seemed IS have plenty of virus Typhus will be In menace with the approach of the co d weather. Tubercuosis and venereal dl 'n eases are making terrible ravages amo es the people.
 IFOODsTUFFs FOR WoRK8IEN " OF PETROGRAD AND .Moscn