REFUGEES, To the Editor of the "Norra-Cuina Dairy News."
Sir,—As well as thanking Jeho Longhand for his kindly reference to my article on Harbin, might I again lay stress on the point which I originally made and which he has emphasized. To repatriate the Russians in Shanghai will not relieve their necessities, and will more than likely impose greater hardship on them than they are at present undergoing. I was informed while in the north that many of those in Shanghai and other places were actually assisted by charitable organizations, working up there, to get hcve—presumably because those on the spot realized the hopelessness of their outlook. To playing a sort of battledore and shuttlecock between charitable organizations, with the unfortunate shuttlecock worse off each time.
There is still another aspect of the whole matter which is worthy of consideration. The fact that Shanghai is to send these unfortunates to some place where their sufferings will not, be quite so apparent to us, will not: make their miseries any the less real to themselves. Again, the _existence of a large number of Rus-siams in Shanghai is somewhat of a protection in itself,.for their presence here suggests to others who might be likely to come, that there is not much room for more. If on the other hand those already in the north learn that in the event of their being unable to find positions in Shanghai, they may be sent home at the expense of the charitable, the inducement to make a venture which at present seems unpromising will be all the greater. And one last reflexion. These people are of a white race, a people which did noble work for us in a time when we wanted help badly, no matter how much that was subsequently discounted by circumstances over which they had little or no control. They have a claim on us which cannot be denied and which will not be met by sending these people to suffer in com-Immunities less able to help them than are we. I say again, this scheme to repatriate Russians at present in Shanghai is foolish and cruel; foolish, because it does not tend permanently to mend matters as they now are in Shanghai, cruel because it is proposed to send them back to the very conditions from which they have striven so hard to escape.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.