Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

. A. K. Marten, a member of the Soviet Mission in the United States. The office had also a statement prepared by me while at Con- stantinople and transmitted to Russia through Mr. Yar- row of the Near East Relief, by way of Tiflis. That statement had very frankly set forth the previous efforts of the Mennonite organization to enter Russia and my temporary connection with the American Red Cross in the Crimea in 1920, when I had gone in with that organiza- tion in order to open the way for the Mennonite work. Likewise the Rostow telegrams and letters, with proposals of work submitted by us there the previous April, were also available. This proved to be very important in estab- lishing confidence. Weinstein did not fail to inquire about our participation in the Relief Conference in Geneva. It became evident that my attendance there was important for us. It gave our organization a certain standing and recognition to be included in the official published list of organizations preparing to assist Russia. Here began my period of waiting. Every night at about midnight I called at the Foreign Office to inquire 140 FEEDING THE HUNGRY whether any decision relative to our proposals had been made. While waiting to see Mr. Weinstein, a pleasant chat with Mr. Kogan, whose friendliness usually provided a glass of hot tea for me when the office force was served its nightly portion, and if he had sugar in the drawer of his desk, a lump would often find its way to my glass. Frequently the foreign newspaper correspondents would have their outgoing telegrams censored or to receive mes- sages from the outside. There was an abundance of good humor, light chaffing, of keen wit and sarcastic thrusts in those exchanges, with loudly expressed longings for home cooking or the comforts of New York or Paris. Waiting for days at a time was tedious, and when one realized how rapidly the Autumn was passing into Winter, it became excruciating. But it might have been considered an offense if I should have tried at once to pass by the lower departments and go direct to some higher official. Weinstein had at the outset instructed me to deal through his department. My letter from the Soviet Mission in London had by this time been mislaid or lost by some one in the office.—Evidence that my in- sistence at Riga on keeping it in my possession was fully justified. If I properly interpreted the psychology of the For- eign Ofhice there was then an intense conflict of emotions over the Riga agreement. On the one hand was high elation, and on the other bitter resentment. They were ‘torn between the two. Elation, because the contract with the Hoover organization gave assurance of help on a scale which would not only free them in a large measure from worry over and disgrace of allowing many millions to starve to death, but would probably also contribute to the continuance of the Bolshevik movement. For there had been those in the