The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-08-16


walton and depletion. They were
prevented from doing so by the
Franco-American policy of interven-
fion, fomenting of wars and block
ade. and now we have plague added
to the other horrors.
Those countries which need partic-
ularly to see Russia saved, and also
need to see themselves saved from
the terrible menace or diseases that
recognize no borders of geography,
have the right to stand firmly against
The infection of political considera-
tons into the relief work.
HoOver's View.
Mr.. Hoover. in his cablegram last
week to ex-President Ador of Swift
zerland, head of the conference, said:
The causes of the famine are such
that they will be recurrent every
year until there is much further
change in the economic system Of
Russia"
France will carry this political
emphasis still further, and 1t is most
essential that countries with even
more at stake than either the United
States or France shall do their best
TO keep the political motive out.
Here Is a free advertisement. I
wish lot of people would buy the
New Republic for August 10 and read
the leading editorial, on the wrong
we have done ourselves as well as
Russia by a persistent propaganda
that has put us into a state of mind
where we are quite incapable Of doing
charity simply.
A while ago / announced that the
State Department was having printed
report on the Russian situation
made in England. No doubt the
whole report will be printed, but these
things are not read in full. Short
summaries are given out to the press
and those are all that in general are
seen.
{. Ante-Soviet Famine.
When the report was made In
England. the parts that were put in
the press were chosen to give the
impression that what was the mat
ter with Russia was her present
form of government. The report GER
tainly did scold the Bolsheviks, and
they deserve scolding, but parts of
the report that were not mentioned
in the press deserve attention also.
Perhaps those parts will receive
some mention when the printing over
here is finished. AS an example, look
at this:
In 1916 mote the date) "the trans
port system was no longer able to
adequately maintain, at one and the
same time, the supplies of the armies
at the front and of the population
at home"
Then let us take 1917, in Feb.
ruary, before even the revolution of
the Intelligenzia: Long queues were
to be seen throughout the city and
in the working class quarters; bread
was scarcely to be obtained at all.
A series OF demonstrations began.
The bridges across the Neva were
drawn up, but thousands of hungry
men and women poured across the
frozen river and made their way TO
Nevsky Prospect on the other sihe."
Glorious Blockade.
That was four years and half be-
fore Nhe present blessed era, in which
we approach Russia with one hand full
Of food for her starving people, and
the other full of essays on how her
troubles are due to the fault of her
system, and not to the extra months
and years Of war that we have forced
on her.
. Now as to our glorious blockade.
This anti.Bolshevik committee headed
by lord, and for the rest made up
of two other titled gentlemen and a
former member OF the British cabinet,
observes:
1.-THE blockade reacted principally
upon the exchange of commodities
between town and country"
And it was the failure OF that ex-
change, with drought conditions, that
brought about the present famine.
Anybody who wants to be able TO
watch the political aspect of the relief
measures with a well-informed and
jealous eye should go into the library,
get the Worlds Work for June and
read the highly satisfied account of
how relief was handled to straighten
out a political situation in Hungary.