Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

ilable for distribution in the field among the Men- 62 FEEDING THE HUNGRY nonites of South Russia. As a result only a rather small part of it ever was at the disposal of our workers. V. ALLIGNMENT WITH THE AMERICAN RELIEF ADMINISTRATION At this time the Hoover organization, known as the American Relief Administration (A.R.A.), concluded agreements with the Soviet authorities under which it was made possible to do extensive feeding in Russia. The above named organization provided a means of communi- cation, and a complete organization for the shipping and purchase of food and for its transportation to distributing points, for which purpose millions of American dollars that had been contributed for child-feeding, were at their disposal. ‘These earlier amounts were greatly augmented by contributions from a number of sources. When all arrangements had been completed, all the church organizations and other benevolent agencies were invited by Mr. Hoover to Washington for consultation on Aug. 24, 1921. At this gathering plans were formu- lated and agreed upon, under which these separate or- ganizations might work as units in Russia, and at the same time enjoy all the privileges and rights of the larger organization, provided that they agree to conform to the Riga agreement, which is given in full at another place in this report. Thus there was opened to us the opportunity to work as a unit in the way that we thought best, and yet be saved the time and money required to provide the machinery for an independent organization. In the meantime the Friends Service Committee through W. K. Thomas had urgently requested that we as Mennonites be associated with them, promising us rights and privileges similar to the A.R.A. under the Riga Agreement, but they were not able to assign a field to us that was satisfactory. THE MENNONITE CENTRAL COMMITTEE 63 Word also came from A. J. Miller that he had suc- ceeded in making an independent agreement both with the Soviet government at Moscow and the authorities at Kharkow in the Ukraine. These agreements followed the general plan of the Riga agreement, but in a few places there were special adaptations to apply to the particular conditions in the regions where we were planning to exert our chief effort. One of the chief points of difference was that we were protected from the interference of local officials, in places hostile to the Mennonite people, who were considered among the wealthy, against whom the revolution had been directed. In order to give our readers a better understanding of the conditions under which the relief work was done in Russia, a knowledge of which is necessary to interpret some of the methods pursued by our representatives, an acquaintance with the contracts entered into with the Rus- sian Soviet government is necessary. We therefore print in an appendix the following agreements, which all influ- enced our relief-operations: Th