Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

vermin. There was a typhus epidemic, and water was not safe to drink unless boiled. ; Some of the factories were running, but very feebly. The employees were appropriating enough in addition to UNSEALING THE CLOSED DOOR Ls their wages so that they could keep alive. Speculation was more profitable. A very common method of gaining a livelihood was to go out to the country towns, buy as much flour as one could carry, and bring it back to town, where prices were many times higher. On April 23, word came from Moscow that the A.M.R. case had been referred to the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs in Moscow, and that in due time an an- swer would come. The first week in May passed, and still there was no reply. The Americans told Comrade Frumken that if no reply came they intended going to Moscow. To that he would not consent. More tele- grams to Moscow brought only the reply that the matter was under advisement. What could one conclude? Either that the Moscow government was not interested, or merely slow. Perhaps both. Finally a telegram was sent stating that if no reply would be received within so many hours the Americans would be sent to Moscow. ‘Then the reply came forbidding that step. Word came that the Alba- tross would soon be returning to Constantinople. Ar- rangements were made to have any news from Moscow forwarded, and the Americans reluctantly made their way back to the ship at Novorossisk. The only contact that had been made with Menno- nites in Rostov was with several men who came from a nearby village. They could give little news. They prom- ised to try to get word to Halbstadt, in hopes that Clay- ton Kratz might still be there. Word filtered down to the Kuban Mennonites that two Americans had been at Rostov, and were leaving again. Before the ship sailed, A. J. Fast of Kuban came to Novorossisk to talk things over. In that way some information was secured as to conditions among the Mennonites, and some things learned that proved useful in later attempts. No word came from Moscow by the time the Alba- 116 FEEDING THE HUNGRY tross was ready to sail, and so there was nothing to do but to go back to Constantinople and seek other avenues of entrance. On June 1, the Albatross reached Constan- tinople, after an absence of nearly two months, which seemed fruitless enough, and yet not entirely so, because they had given the A.M.R. some knowledge of Russia and conditions there, and a basis for subsequent negotiations that proved more fruitful. Part 2. The Door Opens for Relief Work in Russia Alvin J. Miller From CONSTANTINOPLE TO RIGA The journey of Arthur Slagel and myself, as repre- sentatives of the Mennonite Relief Unit, to Novorossisk and Rostow in South Russia in April 1921 had convinced us that a large part of the Russian population would very soon be threatened by one of the most catastrophic fam- ines of modern times. We had entered by way of the South because our