The New York herald., 1921-08-12
AMERICAN AGENT
GOES TO MOSCOW
+. l.. Thompson Succeeds in
Plan to Repatriate Refu-
gees at Stamboul.
FAMINE WELL HANDLED
Praises Bolshevist Leaders as
Hard Working, Clear
Sighted Men,

Special Gable 10 THE NEW York HERALD.
Copyright, 1921, bv THE New YonK HERALD.
REvAL, via LONDON, Aug. 11.-F Il.
Thompson, who was in charge or the
Brest-Litovsk district for the American
Relief Administration and the European
Children's Fund, went to Moscow with
proposition to remove from Constan nti-
nople the Russian refugees. whose condl-
tion is a scandal to Christendom, ,nvoly-
Ing suffering. immortality and the ruin
OF countless girls among the worst scum
In the Levant.
Fifty thousand men among these
refugees are idle ana are being fed by
Europe. 1t is impossible to settle them
anywhere in the Balkans or Asia Minor.
and Moscow suspected that any relief
given to them meant support to pos
sible reactionary army.
The only way out of the difficulty
was for Mr. Thompson to go from Con-
stantinople 10 Moscow and explain mat
ters TO the Bolshevist chiefs. Moscow
agreed TO tnke back the $4,000 men
leaving the women and children. who
thus will be fit objects for the worlds
charity. Mr.. Thompson found Moscow
most helpful. 1t only asked that Soviet
agents should be free to examine refugee
camps inside Russia. He never found,
he said. moro able, hard working, clear
sighted men than Leon Trotzky, Leo
Kameneff, head of the Russian Relief
Commission; Gen. Kaledin and George
Witch Tchitcherin, Commissioner OF For
eign Affairs with whom he had TO
deal.
Mr.. Thompson noticed disposition on
the part of the Reds to make all relief
come by way OF Petrograd and Moscow.
so as to maintain the prestige of the
capital. as they think the tendency
would be. IL foreign relief enters through
routes where the BolsEevist influence Is
weaker. for reactionaries to use this re-
lief as cloak under which to stir up
anti -Bolshevist trouble and to exact po-
litical concessions.
Trotzky said to Thompson. I'VE will
not allow reactionarics. who themselves
will not give a cent to help the starving,
avail themselves OF the door open to
foreign relief In order to sneak into
southern and eastern Russia and raise
political trouble.
These gentry do not mind II million
die if they can use their sufferings as
a means for our overthrow and can use
their death as a handle against u.s."
Mr.. Thompson thinks that the Reds
are the only party with an efficient
working organization and IL they fell
from power there would be chaos. He
found an English Quaker named Watts
in Moscow. who Is feeding $4,000 chill
dren. He said that Watts told him that
he could get threefod proof that every
cent reaches the children. the parents
being required by the Soviet TO furnish
receipts for the food actually eaten by
the children, heads OF schools and Boil
shevild authorities having also to testify
in writing that the food passes through
their hands. Watts Is perfectly satisfied
that the system works we'll and his col
leagues in London also are satisfied.
Mr.. Thompson found little want out
side the famine districts and was able
TO buy some kinds OF food in Moscow
more reasonably than In London. But
Russians everywhere are now putting
aside part of their food to feed the
peasants.
All kinds OF shops have now been
opened in Moscow. including a har-
Yester company. which never ceased to
work throughout the Bolshevist regime.
Mr.. Thompson says that he heard the
American manager OF this company
criticise the Soviet In the presence OF
commissars as freely as an Englishman
might criticise Mr.. Lloyd George. He
advocates buying huge stock of fuel In
Finland and transferring II to Petro-
grad before winter, and thinks IL good
idea to send relief via Petrograd be-
cause great canal system permits
communication with the famine districts,
lie was profoundly impressed by the
energy and business capacity with which
the Reds are handling the famine.