Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

ective far beyond our expectations in pre- paring the way for my later work in Moscow and Khar- 172 FEEDING THE HUNGRY kow. What it meant to the Mennonite leaders is revealed in excerpts from a letter of July 25, 1921, signed by Ben- jamin B. Janz, Chairman, and Heinrich Wiebe, member of the Council of the Mennonite organization in the Ukraine, and by C. Klassen and P. Froese, Moscow, Rep- resentatives of the Mennonite Communities of East Rus- sia and Siberia. “An event for the whole South was the name card of Mr. A. Miller, Constantinople, which came into the hands of the Kuban Mennonite organization. At last a real hap- pening. The two delegates handed to us the letters of Mr. Miller, addressed to the Kuban organization, written in three languages, and also a Plan of Work..... Therefore we have now come with it before the central Government,..... the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, where it was very favorably received. Before our representations were made, however, a letter had arrived from Mr. Miller to the Menno- nite Representatives of the Northeast, located in Moscow, Mr. P. Froese and K. Klassen. Consequently, that Repre- sentation requested a passport for Mr. Klassen to go to Constantinople for the purpose of learning the conditions of work. The permit to go abroad had already been received.” The letter then refers to the All Russian Relief Com- mittee of which Kamenev was chairman. “With this Committee our organization formed con- tacts and proposed that the heads of our organizations, to- gether with the American representative and a plenipoten- tiary of that Committee, secure the right to carry on the (relief) operations.” : As regards distribution to Russians and Mennonites they write: “We explained to the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs that in any case the Russians living in our midst and round about us would be given consideration. They were fully satisfied..... Kamenev, the Chairman is a Party man, (Com- munist), likewise Rykow, his assistant. The other mem- bers of the administration (Executive Board) are public personalities, among them names of renown, as Kischkin and ‘Professor Prokopovitch and others. Our matter is intro- UNSEALING THE CLOSED DOOR ilar duced there....the gentlemen explained that our matter was received very warmly in the session of the Administra- tion (Executive Board), the proposals approved;...... in the Commissariats, the speedy admission of Mr. A. Miller with supplies was also approved...... Both Mr. Froese and Kor- nelius Klassen are in the Committee as charter members.” On August 11, the letter continues: “In the question of help from the American Mennonite organization, the stone has been set rolling rapidly. To this the papers of Prof. Miller contributed their part..... the last point in the Plan of Work gave the most satisfaction :— ‘regardless of race and religion.’ ” The end of the letter is a cry of despair, but clo