Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

f Russia, and the other in the Volga river district? Or should both organizations op- erate in both sections? Should one provide for the chil- dren and the other for adults? Neither Rev. Koekebakker nor I had been author- ized specifically to make any such arrangements, never- theless the problem confronted us. But the decision was taken out of our hands. Levean declared the Govern- ment did not wish to make another separate contract with a Mennonite group and urged that the work of the two be combined into one, citing the combination of the Eng- lish and American Quakers. After many discussions with Levean on the terms of our contract it was finally taking shape. Our negotiations UNSEALING THE CLOSED DOOR 149 were made considerably more difficult because of the Nan- sen-Ichitcherin agreement, signed after my arrival in Moscow, which placed the control of the Nansen Relief activities into the hands of two men—a representative of Nansen and a representative of the Soviet Government. Nansen’s liberal policy toward government participation in relief affairs in contrast with my determined insistence on retaining full control in our own boards was repeatedly made a matter of caustic comparison unfavorable to us. On the whole, our contract included nearly all of the conditions of the A.R.A. Riga agreement and added sey- eral points of considerable importance. One such point provided for the feeding of adults as well as children. We specified that our help would be given “‘to the needy civilian population” thus including the parents, while the A.R.A. contract in article 8 stated that the supplies are intended for the children and the sick. It was evident that the number of people suffering seriously from lack of food would mount to an appalling figure. Every month would add a million or so to the gaunt procession of the starving. To feed only the children was to doom the parents to death. That would mean many millions of orphans. ‘Then what was to become of them? There was no place for them to go except into the Children’s Homes or Colonies, and all such homes were being brought fully under party control, which meant the entire exclusion of all religion. The only teaching about God the child would thus have would be that there is no God. Most Mennonites would rather see their children die than to have them grow up as infidels. We determined to or- ganize our feeding in such a way as to save the whole family, not only the children, but parents likewise. Our contract named the Ukraine as a party to the agreement, in order to forestall objections from that part of Soviet Russia. The Government insisted that we guarantee a 150 FEEDING THE HUNGRY certain amount of relief, and finally we felt compelled to set arbitrarily the sum of $50,000.00 as a minimum, stat- ing verbally however that $500,000.00 would probably be nearer the mark. It was agreed that we could bring into Russia such personn