Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-11-21
F ANIME CAUSES
MISERY N THE
SAHARA REGION
Revolutions for Five Years
Have Left a Trail of De-
struction and Ruined
Houses; Fuel is Scarce.
tBy The hssocirtcd prcss.)

Samara, on the Volga, Nov. 90
(by a Staff Correspondent of the
Associated Press) The numerical
and geographical extent of the
great famine cannot be given.
There is today and has been as
much food available in Samara, for
those who have money, as in Baku,
on the Caspian sea, 1000 miles dis
tant. The Russian refugees from
Bolshevism in Constantinople are
suffering from hunger and lack OF
clothes almost as much as those
Russians in Poltava and they in
turn as much as those in Orenburg.
The Associated Press correspond
ent completed a journey from Con-
stantinople to Moscow by way of
Tiflis, Baku, Astrakhan and Sa-
mara, and everywhere found in
tense misery. the most sordid of
which was seen in the dreary
steppe region between Tiflis (Geor-
gia) and Baku port of Azerbaijan
on the Caspian seal.
Revolt After Revolt.
There revolution after revolution.
for five years, has left a trail of
destruction and ruined houses and
wrecked railway stations which
cannot be matched in Russia. Add
ed to the lack of food, is the con-
slant battle with malaria. cholera
and typhus, and added to these is
the cold against which there is lit
tie shelter or fuel.
No more pathetic sight was seen
than that of the Baku central rail-
way station where thousands of
men. women and children, going
nobody could say where. were
camped on dirty sidinPs, for the |
most part dressed in rags and eat
ing scraps of food like hunted ami |
mails.
To the north, along the Volga in
Russia, the misery is often of the
respectable, clearly kind. At Car
itzyn thousands of families are liv-
ing in railway cars. Others have
been housed in villas and palaces.
Begging is rather the exception
than the rule everywhere in the
famine regions.
Churches Are Open.
The German colonist villages and
towns along the Volga are so
clearly and orderly, surrounded by
such florid luxuriance of field and
forest, that 1t Is hard to believe
their people are suffering from
hunger. AS everywhere in Russia,
the churches are open and services
are held. At Volsk. when the cor
attended vespers, he
was followed out of the church by
one of the priests who begged that
eood ooy,,a Fror, m orion bafora bic
people starved.
In the worst areas there Is far
more hunger swelling than was
seen in Vienna in the winter of
1918. This is the last stage of star
walton and when it comes neither
food nor medicine will help.
The majority of such cases are
to be seen in the cities, about the
station, in the trains or
about the landing stages and on
the steamers of the Volga, where
hundreds Of thousands of peasant
wanderers are seeking to reach
friends in districts where they
imagine food conditions are better.
The government Is trying to dis
such wanderings but they
are continuing.
The distances made by peasant
families are incredible. At Saratov,
about the river front, may be met
families from Orenburg going to-
wards the Ukraine, where the crops
did not fail, and then families from
Astrakhan going UP river to some
of the German villages such as
Volsk or Baronov.
Robbers Shot When Caught.
While there Is perfect order In
all Russia. on every hand the indi-
vidual struggle for life, for daily
food, is bitter and hard No one
thinks of anyone else. Robbery is
limited as robbers are shot when
caught, but trickery in small trad
iro IS the rule. A warm place to
sleep, something to eat. and cloth
ing. are the beginning and end of
daily life. Children are brushed
aside, ignored or treated like little
animals.
A person invited to a meal will
eat twice what good manners would
permit. He is laying in stock of
food, building IN his body, he fig
ures, for the winter cold. Those
with money are boarding food. In
some places peasants refuse to sell
l. IL -