Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

efuge. They insisted’ that Bro. Krehbiel and I should stop off and inspect the- place on our way to Constantinople. This, however, was: later found to be impractical. c. Plans for the supply of seed grain and garder seeds were urged upon us much, but when we reported our tentative agreement with the Dutch Committee, Benj. Unruh consented to take this matter up with Dr. Fleischer of that committee in an endeavor to supply this essential from Central Europe. d. The tractor situation as I reported from Hol- land seemed to please all, they being more optimistic about it than I. e. It was mutually agreed that we advise Menno- nites in Russia not to attempt flight if it were at all possible to stay. At Berlin we had hoped to meet Bro. Hoeppner who had been accepted for work in the colonies along the Volga, but to our keen disappointment we failed to make connection with him, so we assumed that he had already gone. 72 FEEDING THE HUNGRY 3. Constantinople We arrived there Saturday and were cordially re- ceived by the members of our unit after we had located them. On Sunday morning, we went to the Mennonite Home on the Bosphorus, where we arrived during the ‘morning services. Rev. H. Braun, who had recently ar- rived from Russia, was addressing the meeting. Later we were given opportunity to deliver the greetings of the Mennonite Central Committee. The joy to meet us was great, for they saw in our coming a brighter prospect of bringing food and clothing to their friends in Russia. After dinner we made an inspection of the whole plant, _where we found very satisfactory conditions and a group of grateful people. This completed, we passed on to the Young Women’s Home. We went through the whole house and met a great number of the inmates, mostly refugees of the better class of the Russian people, i. e. ‘the former aristocracy and nobility. They served us tea and at our departure made very urgent requests not to close the work in Constantinople. Monday forenoon we called at the American Eth bassy, where we were cordially received by Admiral Bris- tol and his staff. After reading our letters of introduc- tion from the London A.R.A. office, the Admiral promptly stated that a destroyer was going to Theodosia via Odessa and that we were welcome to take passage the next morn- ing. Upon our explanation that we could not be ready by that time, he volunteered to have the destroyer sail a day later to accommodate us, whereupon we accepted his kind offer. Later we called at the office of the American Consul and received every consideration. Upon the sug- gestion of our workers we also called on the Soviet repre- sentative, from whom we received letters of introduction to officials in Soviet Russia. We felt that these might be THE MENNONITE CENTRAL COMMITTEE 78) of real service to us later. Our later experience justified this supposition. Monday evening we discussed with our personnel the futu