To the Editor of the "Norra: Cuina Dairy News."
Srz,—Russian refugees in search of employment are frequently asked the question why they do not return to their homes instead of wandering about the world and suffering all kinds of privations.
In passing our judgment over them we must remember that the large majority of the Russian refugees both here in the East and in Europe belong to the so-called "Gntelligentzia," that they have taken part, and in many cases a very active part, in the civil war and in the struggle against Bolshevism. Many of them have no homes in the true sense of the word, their homesteads having been burnt or otherwise destroyed and their families scattered abroad. is more than natural that after years of strenuous struggle they should seek and long for a peaceful existence in more or less normal surroundings.
In Soviet Russia, European Russia as well as Siberia, where there still reigns complete disorganization, the economic situation is very critical Many people cannot find any employment and are carrying on a pitiful existence.
The professional or labour unions as a rule do not admit into their midst any outsider, much less a former intelligent.' Famine is bound to continue in the Volga region, the eastern provinces of European Russia and western Siberia. The cultivated area of land is so small that its products might only suffice to support a part of the farming population. The towns and cities cannot escape starvation.
Again, a series of decrees of tha Soviet government have declared that all Russian refugees who have not registered before certain dates of the autumn of 1922, with the local representatives of the Soviets shall be considered as outlaws deprived of all rights of Russian citizenship. Only special permits may admit such persons to the Soviet territory.
In spite of all reports to the contrary, it is an established fact that all refugees who are connected in some or other way with the anti-Bolshevist movement when returning home are as a rule thrown into prison as soon as they reach Soviet territory and if they happen to be former officers or soldiers of the White army they are only released in exceptional cases when they agree to enlist in the Red army after first passing a long period of probation.
Under such circumstances it is easily understood that the refugees
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.