Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

at once: Hotel Savoy, September 16, 1921. Mr. L. Kamenev President of the Central Relief Committee of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It gives me pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 15th. The conditions in general terms as contained in your letter are quite acceptable so far as they go. In accordance with our conversation I am now submitting the plans and proposals in detail. In conference with M. Levean I have already explained certain details in question in the brief sketch of our plans which had been prepared at your request. Trusting that the proposed agreement meets with your hearty approval, and that our work of help may begin at once with your cooperation, I remain, Very sincerely yours, Alvin J. Miller. Now we proceeded to the writing of the contract. The first draft was laid before Levean as soon as he could meet me again. He kept it a day or two to study the terms. At the next conference he objected to a number of points, emphasizing the objection by saying the terms proposed were practically the same as those of the Amer- ican Relief Administration contract, which I readily ad- mitted; and which, moreover, would be reasonable, because ours was an American organization the same as the other. He countered by reminding me of the promise of the other organization to feed a million, while we were not ready to state any guaranteed number. Besides, he hinted, the other was a semi-government organization. He had rewritten the contract in terms acceptable to the Govern- ment and passed it to me for signature. I also rewrote, making some concessions and changing the wording of un- acceptable points. So the ball was tossed back and forth several weeks, each contending for specific points. 148 FEEDING THE HUNGRY During this time, while the negotiations were pro- ceeding slowly but developing satisfactorily, a new factor entered. It was the arrival of Rev. Jacob Koekebakker, the Mennonite Representative from Holland, sent by the Algemeene Commissie von Buitelandsche Noode von Doopegesinde in Nederland (General Commission for Foreign Need of Mennonites: in Netherland) to negotiate a contract with the Soviet Government for the Holland Mennonite organization. It was to him that Rev. Hyl- kema had referred when he telegraphed me at Geneva. He had met some of the officials, and I took him with me the following day to our conference with Levean. The coming of yet another Mennonite representative, from a different country, served to convince Levean that the Men- nonites were vitally interested in relief work. His coming brought up new problems. Should each make a separate contract and have the organizations working independently? Or cooperatively under one head? Or should a combined contract be made for Amer- ican and Holland Mennonites working cooperatively? Or independently? In either case should one group work exclusively in the South o