The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-03
VIII Use Guns to Repel Ad-
Vancing Horde.
CLAIM INTRIGUE BY FRENCH
BOIsheviki Not Acknowledging
Debt, Says Paris.
PetrOgrad Region Not Hard Hit
by Food Scarcity.

people in the famine districts of Rus
s,a are setting fire to their villages be-
fore deserting them for other parts of
Russia, according to q Helsingfors dis
patch to the Central News Agency to-
day, quoting persistent reports said 20
have been received this morning from
the interior of Russia. Many villages
are said to be in flames.
From the same source it was re-
ported that great preparations were
made to deal with the masses of peas
ants now moving toward Moscow.
Many trenches have been dug about
the city and much war material, in
Guiding field guns, have been in
! stalled. the report said.
Other kilograms received at Hell
singfors reported that the Petrograd
garrison had mutinied again.
Soviet Denies Famine.
/ Famine conditions in the Volga
provinces of Russia are very Sc
rious, George Chitcherin, Bolshe-
Wiki minister of foreign affairs has
declared in a wireless dispatch to
Vienna, says the Daily Herald. NJ
Chitcherin. however. is said to have
! declared that 'The foreign capitalistic
press is wildly exaggerating the facts
to suit it's own purpose"
There is great misery in the striek-
en- districts" the newspaper quotes
the dispatch as saying, but some of
the frightful tales circulated thruout
imagination of journalists and should
/ be received with reserve"
Petrograd Not Hit.
| The Petrograd region is declared not
to have been seriously affected by the
famine. having saved crops from the
ruin which overlook farm products in
the southern part of the country. Sew
/ eral ships are unloading food at Petro-
grad, says a dispatch to the Daily Mail
/ from Bjornebourg, town in Finland.
50 miles northwest of Abo, and more
food is arriving in the city from Reval.
1t is declared that Russians who
visit ships in the harbor of Petrograd d
are begging sailors to sell their rations
and one captain is said to have re-
Gently bartered two bags of flour for
a pianoforte.
Offers of assistance by America and
England to starving Russia wells a
desire for counter revolution against
the soviet government" according to
an accusation. made in an official
rationale and printed today in the
Daily Herald, organ of the British la
Dor party.
The manifesto adds: Failing in a
counter-revolution, England and
America will let the masses starve."
The proclamation charges France
with sending troops and ammunition
to Poland for another Polish attack
; upon soviet Russia French diplo-
| mats are accused. of trying to en-
!, Il
: Little Entente" in war against
Russia.
Deny Assuming Debt.
Paris, Aug. 3.-Reports that nego-
tiations for recognition of the Russian
debt to France were impending
: which have been in circulation for sew
eral days, were given official denial
: today.
The denial seems to have been
prompted mainly by circumstantial
statement declared to be on reliable
authority printed here this morning
gun last night by Louis Loucheur
French minister of liberated regions
and Leonid Krassin, Russian soviet
minister of trade and commerce.
Arc Releasing Americans.
Riga, Aug. 3.-American prisoners
in Russia already have been released
from confinement, according to unof-
ficiaI reports at the Bolsheviki lega
ton press bureau here today but there
was no word as to the number re-
leased or when, how or where they
| would be delivered across the border
y An international committee has beer
organized here to render relief to the
starving of Russia. This committed
with the international Red Cross or
2 ganization in Riga, which is looking
I after the transport to Russia of former
$ prisoners of war will maintain rela
tions with regard to relief work be
l tween Moscow and western Europe, i
= is announced.
7 Senator France Returns.
Berlin, Aug 3.-United States Sen
e ator Joseph France and Mrs. Mar
: guerite Harrison of Baltimore, arrived
d here today from Riga. Mrs. Harrison
= has been detained in a Russian prison
Y for many months, but was recently re
r leased and arrived in Riga from
" Russia last week. Her release wa
s effected thru the efforts of Senate
3 France while he was in Moscow
l. The senator said that about 10000,
s 600 persons are feeling the effect o
the Russian famine which wa
d brought about by drouth which ruine'
: the crops The senator will sail 70
: New York, August II, Mrs. Harrison
k is at the Adlon hotel
Four Killed by Explosion.
x Uniontown, Pa, Aug. 3.-Four me
/ were killed by a terrific explosion i
n the press mill at the Oriental plant o
/ tho DuDout Powder COMPANY fiV