112 



DISCOVERY 



Books Received 



(Mention in tliis column does not preclude a review.) 



MISCELLANEOUS 



The Friendly Arctic. The Story of Five Years in Polar 

 Regions. By Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Illustrated. 

 (MacmiUan & Co., Ltd., 30s.) 



Lord Byron's Correspondence {chiefly with Lady Melbourne, 

 Mr. Hothouse, the Hon. Douglas Kinnaird, and 

 P. B. Shelley). With Portraits. Edited by John- 

 Murray, C.V.O. In Two Volumes. (JohnMurray, 255.) 



Personality and Power. Being the Adult School Lesson 

 Handbook for 1922. (National Adult School 

 Union. Paper covers, 15. 3^. ; cloth boards, 25. 6d.) 



SCIENCE 



The Failure of Metals under Internal and Prolonged Stress. 

 Edited by F. S. Spiers, O.B.E., B.Sc. etc. (The 

 Faraday Society, los. bd.) 



Space — Time — Matter. Bj- Hermann ^^'EYL. Trans- 

 lated from German by Henry L. Brose. With 

 15 diagrams. (Methuen & Co., Ltd., i8s.) 



Readable School Physics. By J. A. Cochrane, B.Sc. 

 (G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., 2s. ^d.) 



Distillation Principles and Processes. By Sydney Young, 

 M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. (MacmiUan & Co., Ltd., 40s.) 



Isotopes. F. W. Aston, D.Sc, F.R.S. (Edward Arnold 

 & Co., gs.) 



Notes and Examples on the Theory of Heat and Heat 

 Engines. By John Case, M.A. (Cambridge : \\'. 

 Heffer &- Sons, Ltd.) 



Correspondence 



THE RUSSIAN FAMINE 



Sir, 



To the Editor of Discovery 



I write to protest in the name of fair play against 

 ths article on the Russian famine in the current number 

 of Discovery. It ascribes the famine solely to the mis- 

 doings of the Soviet Government, practically disregarding 

 the main causes — the drought and the Allied blockade, 

 togsther with the various \\dld-cat invasions by adven- 

 turers that have been financed by our Government, thus 

 continuing the long-drawn-out agony of civil war. The 

 supply of machinery and locomotives has failed because 

 we blockaded the country for political reasons of our own. 

 It is a fact well known to railway experts that the former 

 Government of Russia had been steadily allowing the 

 transport system of the country to deteriorate long before 

 the war began. To ascribe the famine solely to the 

 Soviets is, therefore, a bit of political special pleading 

 that one would not expect to find in a publication that 

 speaks scientifically. 



And in expressing the idea that Russia can save herself 



unaided by other countries, her neighbours, Major Blake 

 stands practically^ alone. All expert opinion is against 

 him in this. He is apparently the victim of unconqusrable 

 political bias. This bias has led him, not only to callous 

 inhumanity, but to a partial and one-sided view utterly 

 unworthy of a scientific journal. 



Yours, etc., 



M. P. WiLLCOCKS. 



35 Pennsylv.\nia Road, 



Exeter. 

 March 3, 1922. 



To the Editor of Discovery 



Sir, 



JSIr. WiUcocks apparently objects to my opinion 

 regarding the direct cause of the Russian Famine. 



Possibly the Allied blockade and the various civil wars 

 have helped to make matters worse, but surely these in 

 themselves were the direct outcome of Bolshevik rule. 



I maintain, from what I saw myself, from what Russian 

 inhabitants and refugees told me, and from what I have 

 heard from members of the various Relief Commissions 

 working in Russia and Poland, that there can be no doubt 

 at all that the actions of the Soviet authorities are the 

 cause of this dreadful catastrophe. Perhaps one of the 

 chief causes of the trouble was the Soviet order that all 

 grain grown by farmers surplus to their own requirements 

 should become the property of the Soviets. This at once 

 caused farmers to sow only sufficient seed for their own 

 needs and, when the return was less than one-tenth of 

 that expected, the trouble really commenced. Had 

 normal quantities been sown and only a tenth average 

 crop resulted, that would still have been sufficient for the 

 agricultural population to exist on. 



Mr. WiUcocks has misunderstood me if he believes that 

 I think Russia can save herself unaided. This I do not say, 

 but I do contend that all the efforts of the rest of the world 

 cannot avert the death of millions, and therefore I suggest 

 that Russia had best be left to herself in order that in 

 course of years she may recover, whilst the hundreds of 

 thousands of pounds which are badly needed in our own 

 country should be used for the relief of distress in this 

 country, and not sent to a nation which is neither aUied 

 to U3 in sympathy nor in aim, and upon which relief 

 cannot have any effect other than in slightly prolonging 

 the agonv of the starving millions. 



Yours, etc., 

 Wilfrid T. Blake. 

 New Lodge, Limpsfield, 



Surrey. 

 March 7, 1922. 



[Following our usual policy of publishing criticisms of 

 any article in our journal by readers, and of a reply by 

 the writer thereof, we have printed the above corre- 

 spondence. At the same time we wish to point out that 

 we completely dissociate ourselves from any views on 

 the Russian Famine, such as those expressed in both 

 letters, approaching a political nature. — Ed.] 



