New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-26

Army Adds to
Russia $ Woes
Flight of Locusts 10 Miles
" i d c Sweeps Across
Country, Completing The
Picture of Desolation
Relief Official Reports
immediate Action Neces-
sa'.y 10 Save 5000, 900
Children, He Declares

MOSCOW. Russia. Aug. IS (By The
Associated Press) An army Of grass
hoppers ten miles wide has swept from
Novorossisk, on the Black Sea. to the
grain belt Of Russia, DESTROYING what
little rye was left in the famine re-
gions, according to Albert A. Johnson,
or farningdale, n. Y, chairman of the
Near East Relief, WHO has lust arrived
IN Moscow from Tfis. Trans Caucasia.
by way Of the famine region He left
ms on August Is to investigate the
famine st first hand, together with Il.
=. arrow, director general Of the Near
EAST Relief IN Trans Caucasa; Pay
ton Hibben. Of Ind;anapolis; John
Voris and Frank Comes. the latter
acting as interpreter
ut is absolutely impossible for Rus
STA to feed her starving" said Mr..
johnson. Immediate action is ncces-
sary for The relief of the 5000 600
children or it will arrive too late.
Local Aid Impossible
"Kuban and the Ukraine, which nor
mally would take care Of anv lack Of
1oodstuFs in the stricken district. are
themselves suffering from shortage.
This IS the second year of famine in the
No!ga country. Other Russian wheat
districts helped cut last year, but this
year that cannot do so. Last year the
Nolga farmers lived on bread made
from millet and chaf or grass mixed
with earth, from which they made a
bread paste. During the winter thev
were forced to sell their household
goods to maintain life until the harvest
this year, when they hoped to pull
through.
But this summer all southeast Rus
STA was burned up by the drought
ten miles wide, which went from Novo-
rossisk straight through the grain belt.
The population was forced to eat
draught animals when the harvest
failed, and now have nothing.
"Saratoy is an immense concertra-
ton camp Of refugees from the upper
Volga region. Fifteen children are
dying daily at Simbi,sk. while the
deaths of children number about
twenty daily at Tambox. Approximate
~ 100 600 persons have left their homes
IN Simbirsk and Sahara provinces
alone. We have seen trainloads OF ref
ugees with the tops of cars packed with
people, with children riding on bump
ers and women with babies III arms
lying along running boards, next to
boilers or lashed to brake beams-ail
fleeing from the stricken districts.
Authorities Are Helpless
"These people fight as though they
were mad to get aboard trains, and the
local authorities are wholly unable to
check the exodus. The central govern
ment is doing all it can to facilitate
the escape OF the famine stricken popu-
latlon as well as to prevent the spread
OF cholera. We saw boardings covered
with graphic pictorial warnings, DO
signed to be understood even by the IL
literate, showing that care must be
taken 10 avoid an epidemic Of cholera,
AS far south az Baku we saw train
loads o. famine sufferers, sent by the
government in the hope work would be
found for them in the oil fields.
Through the whole mountain republic
north Of the Caucasus and in the
Kuban country we saw thousands of
refugees camped in vas. helpless col
onies or living in box cars along The
IA way. lacking clothing and food.
"The local communities, laced by
their own shortage Of foodstuEs, re-
fuse to permis refugees TO enter cities
and towns, and they move on endlessiT
rom place to place, without hope or
help, diving by the roadside, or through
weakness failing from trains at Night"