Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

ation beyond the Ural mountains. How warmly I was greeted by his wife and by Cornelius Franz Klassen, the other member of the Mennonite delegation in Moscow! Both Froese and Klassen were young in years, but old, indeed aged in ex- perience. ‘They had been commissioned by the Mennonites of all Russia, outside the Ukraine, to remain in Moscow to represent them in the endless problems that came up for adjustment between the Mennonites and the local Goy- ernments. At Moscow, the Federation capital of these Governments, they could always hope for a reasonable hearing and more considerate treatment. Klassen, a man of distinguished appearance, had just come home, having been detained several days when the All Russian Relief Committee, in whose work he was participating, was dissolved by the Tcheka, on the very day I arrived in Moscow. That committee had been organized about the mid- dle of July, presumably as a committee representing all classes in Russia. It had been called on the initiative of the Government. Kamenev, one of the ablest Com- munists, was the chairman. Among its members were eminent personages who had been prominent in Russian affairs, and whose names were well and favorably known UNSEALING THE CLOSED DOOR 7 in Europe and America. Not only the aristocracy and the intelligentsia of Russia had built high hopes on this committee, but also the isolated groups of Mennonites. Writing under date of July 29, the four Mennonite repre- sentatives previously referred to in this chapter express their enthusiasm for this committee when they say that it “is the first great step in the direction of allowing social initiative, especially initiative from the intelligentsia; even more, placing these on an equality with the Government, not to mention appealing to them........ As I observed, un- questionably, great significance is attached to the All Rus- sian Relief Committee, and great expectations are aroused. For example, in the Foreign Office we were referred direct to this Committee when we sought to act on the sug- gestions of Mr. A. Miller and the proposed plan of WOLKS ase Much was made of this famous nonpartisan commit- tee at the Geneva Relief Conference of August 15, where an elderly man, an intimate friend of the illustrious Lev Tolstoi, plead the cause of the millions starving in Russia. A daughter of Tolstoi was a member of this committee. But on the same day that Nansen with Tchicherin signed the Nansen Relief agreement; and on the same day that the first group of A.R.A. personnel arrived in Moscow, the All Russian Relief Committee ceased to exist. We need only turn again to the history of the French Revolution to convince ourselves that a committee includ- ing so many diverse elements could not possibly have length of life where factional hatred was at white heat. It must be remembered that even the liberal and tolerant Lafayette was soon discredited in Paris, as were all mo