70 



DISCOVERY 



machinery, and agricultural implements were all 

 broken up; even the seed corn was wasted or eaten. 

 Last winter conditions were bad, but throughout 

 the country small supplies of grain had escaped the 



A GROUP OF TREN'CH-DWi-,IvLI-NG RliFLTGliES NEAR PORZECE. 



general disasters and were being saved for seed in the 

 spring. Much of this seed was eaten by hard-driven 

 peasants, and, when it came to sowing the remainder, 

 it was discovered that agricultural implements to till 

 the soil were lacking. Some small acreage was roughly 

 scratched up by crudely-made wooden tools, then the 

 drought — which was as severe in Russia as elsewhere — 

 arrived ; the sprouting corn, barely covered by a little 

 dust, was at once withered up, and the possibility of a 

 scanty crop failed to materialise. Summer saw the 

 vast majority of the population of Russia and Eastern 

 Poland — which territory has only recently been taken 

 from Russia — in the grip of starvation. Wliilst the 

 weather was warm many people managed to exist ; 

 with the frosts they began to die off like flies. In many 

 parts of Russia at the present time there is no seed, no 

 machinery, no food, no shelter, and no hope, despite 

 the fact that excellent relief work is being carried out 

 by several Administrations, notably the American 

 Relief Administration and the Friends' Mission. 



I made my journey from London to Warsaw via 

 Paris, Strassburg, and Prague. On reaching Warsaw 

 I found that it was difficult to obtain petrol, and so 

 continued my journey to Brest-Litowsk, now called 

 Bresce-n-Bugiem, by rail. At this point one sees the 

 first signs of trouble in Russia. Things are expensive 

 in Warsaw, though cheaper to the foreigner on account 

 of the rate of exchange, but there is plenty of food if 

 one can afford to pay for it. East of Brest food is not 

 obtainable in most cases. 



At Brest is one of the Distribution Camps for refugees 

 fleeing from Russia to Poland. In order to stop the 

 stream of emigration the Soviet authorities have decreed 

 that no person may leave Russia unless he has guaran- 

 tees of work and financial assistance, or is already home- 

 less. In order to qualify as homeless many thousands 



of people have burnt down their houses and have joined 

 in the vast trek which is proceeding from east to west. 

 They cross the frontier chiefly at Baranovitchi, and 

 are then sent on to various distribution centres, 

 among them Brest-Litowsk. 



Here I saw the first starvation victims. Refugees 

 fall out of the trains which bring them from Barano- 

 vitchi, too weak and ill to trouble much about their 

 future. Hunger and privations have reduced them to 

 absolute despair. Strangely enough, many of the people 

 do not show signs of emaciation ; their faces are in 

 many cases full, and they are frequently inclined to 

 be corpulent. This is, I understand, due to two causes : 

 firstly, unsuitable food, if melon rind, clay, and dung 

 can be classed as food, which causes their bodies to 

 swell, and secondly, the fact that the Russian peasant 

 dies long before he has reached the stage of starvation 

 to which Indian famine victims frequently survive. 

 The children show most signs of trouble. Small, 

 naked youngsters crawl about the railway siding, ribs 

 sticking out like barrel hoops, legs shrunken to 

 skin and bone, and bellies swollen like balloons from 

 hunger disease. Dysentery is rife and other diseases 

 occur, though cholera and typhoid are not so common 

 as many reports allege. 



From Brest I continued to Baranovitchi, which 

 reproduces the conditions at Brest on a much larger 

 scale. Here is a large concentration camp where 

 people are placed as they cross the frontier and given 

 some slight aid before being sent on to the dispersal 

 stations. It is a moving sight to watch the train-loads 

 and columns of miserable wretches entering Barano- 



ROOFS ERECTED ON THE OI,D RUSSI.AN TRENCHES 

 NE-'^R PORZECE. 



vitchi. All of them are starving and in rags ; many 

 are almost naked. All of them are vermin-ridden, and 

 groups collect scraping each other with pieces of wood, 

 in an effort to remove the insects which swarm on 



