£<5 T VV\V Rwve,___CONTINUED in JACKET Ssc Schvuulv Withlll
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
SOCIÉTÉ DES NATIONS. IjAÇKET^jj LEAGUE OF NATIONS. REGISTRY. r t Classement. , - - Jf)C\r Dossier N“ | 0^-vU ^), N' **>- Classement Document N". £<5 T_VV\V rwvE,____ SsC Schvuulv W ithlll REMETTRE CE DOCUMENT L'USAGE DE CET EMPLACEMENT EST remettre ce document (En second lieu). réservé au Registry. (En premier lieu). ■chedule within Document ) précédent i Index A. Index B. Schedule within Voir les dossiers : - A classer ' ' ' CONTINUED IN JACKET r rT « » % 1JACKET 3 Ï 1 9 2 a . % SOCIETE DES NATIONS. LEAGUE OF NATIONS. HF.GI8IRV. RUSSIAN REFUGEES Document No. I). -i.,r No. "T ... 2. 3 3 /<$/[ 22278 fîfy\< \£n.|iv d .C A O oM iZa 6 F 3x^{y* M • ^ (Kn I 'l'i-mitrr-Kcw.) (Kn Beuoinl-liini). Héeponaos, &c. (Out Letter Book) : C I'i tf&jXrZ' ^ " Ç/i^ __L J - a TRANSLATION of letter from M r .H A H N,Odessa to Mr Gorvin. t0* I6th November 1923. No.3554 A. Dear Mr Gorvin, A few days ago a small Italian steamer "ALLA" arrived here with about 300 Wrangel soldiers from Varna. About 80# of these refugees have been sent to their native country 'oy the Refugees Association, ^he journey from Varna to Odessa under very unfavourable conditions, costs 10 to 15 Turkish liras. These immigrants nave found here a shelter in the Feeding point of tfe Evacuation Authorities, but they are isolated. They get I pound bread per day, some soup (meat every two days) andbgruel for supper. They are examined as to their state of health and undergo treatment where necessary. In this group there are several commanding officers and some from the Staff headquarters. These refugees will shortly be furnished with the necessary documents and a owed to return to their homes. However, on arrival at their native villages etc. they must again a ear before the authorities before getting free for good and all. Sgd. K. E A H N« ' / / JH0/EG/7S Moscow, 30....Noy ember X933, 192.... # Mo c k b INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR RUSSIAN RELIEF Dear 4taei Johnson, Nansen Mission Office: B. N ikitskaja 43. I) I returned from my visit to Télégraphie address: REPOMER Moskow. Astrachan on the 3?th November and found MEWAVHAPOflHblPi KOMMTET your letter of the I8th November together with nOM Ol^M r0J10flAKDU4MM MMCCMfl HAHCEHA. the list of refugees received from Mr. KoHTopa no pacnpeflenemiio nocwnoK Korechkov, the Russian Red Cross Delegate in Ka^aûiHhiR nep., 6. Bulgaria. This list was transmitted as soon as TenerpaiÿHUfl aapec: PEHOMEP Tejie*. J6 84-16. copied to Mr. Karachan. I have also notified Mr. Karachan that Mr. Krestinsky has con firmed that the delegates taken from the first contingent of repatriated men should be allowed to return to Bulgaria to re port on the arrangements made in regard to reception and settle ment of the emigrants. I am very grateful for the list ,as with out some definite indication of the names of the men to be re ported on, one's position is much weakened. The list would how ever have been more valuable if it had been signed by the Re presentative of the Russian ged cross and the pepresentative of Dr.No.nsen at Varna. F urnished with these signatures, the list becomes a kind of official pass. I note that pr.Nansen is again taking up the question of the repartition of the transport costs. From the conversation I had with Mr. Karachan I understood that this question had been settled; the riaffifgae organisations must certainly be asked to pay part at any rate of this cost. 3) I will now continue my report. You make no mention in your letter of I8th November ofthe following letters which I a dressed to Geneva from the South of Russia-^in connection with repatriation:- (letter to ytx. Johnson cntd.) Letter dated Roetof 3rd November 11 " nctooer " " NovorossiiskSÔ Qctooerfto de Watteville) " " (to de Watteville)/>'(Pc>Av, " ( " " )/JVcZr I sincerely hope you have received these letters as they ex plain in detail exactly what steps I took in regard to examin ation of the conditions under which the men are repatriated and settled. In these letters I also enclosed lists showing the names of the man recently repatriated. My letter of the 3rd November terminated at the moment of my departure on 2nd November from Rostov for Ekaterinodar to examine the condition of the returned Cossacks in the Kuban areas. I found that all the Kalmukej'nad been settled in the Don and Ast^chan districts and not in Kuban. Before leaving Rostov I was handed by the president of the Ispolkom the attached extracts of letters from repatriated men and announcements,all received from the Political Department. These were handed to me for Dr.Nansen^s information. The letters certainly come from men very favourably disposed to the Russian government. I arrived at Krasnodar at 10 a.m. on 4th November and was lodged in the"First House of the Soviet Government". I im mediately got into touch with the Secretary of the jspolkom who stated that few mer. bad passed through the collecting centre in Krasnodar « ^e was however engaged on preparations for the holidays of the 5th, 6th and ?th ■frovemoer in honour of the No vember Revolution and much more anxious that I should be on the platform during the review than thü-t I should spend my time in looking into the condition of returning emigrants. The office personnel had already departed on holiday, so I had to content myself during the day spent in Krasnodar in interviewing pro- — I - 3- fessors and others with a view to extracting information as to the conditions under which they had returned. As far as I could gather, the men were free and certainly in no worse condition and probably better than many who had returned to the Don area. The returned men were in different stanizas some distance from Krasnodar and commu nications were difficult . Life in the uncomfortable and dirty Soviet House during the three or four days holiday was not attract ive, so that I departed for Novorossiisk the next day, especially as I feared that the ships referred to in your telegrams had cilready arrived at Novorossiisk. Mr. Geymuiden, former Norwegi r.jVicc _ jia-~Brit British consul at Novorossiisk informed me on arrival that he had received information from the captain of a British steamer then in the port ,that the next steamer was not due at Novorossiisk until three weeks time. Seeing that^ther.e was no point in re maining at Novorossiisk ,I left on 7th jjpvember for Tzarizin with a view to finding further repatriated men and to continuing my journey to Aatrd-chan where, I had been informed in Rostov, a number of the returned officers were in prison and where a number of Kalmucks had already been sent (see attached list). The railway from Novorossiisk to Tzarizin passes through the Don area . The land as seen from the train consisted of extensive steppes with little sign of cultivation. The guard of the train informed me that before the war the steppes here were not cultivated but that one used to see from the train large numbers of horses/twX cattle- now very few were apparent. He informed me that in the Salsky Okrut which is some distance from the line and where some repatriated men are now settled, the land is cultivated and the population should be able to oarrylon. I arrived at Tzarizin on 9th Npvember and spent the day in examining the relief work of the Swiss Red Cross =md of the Americ an Relief Administration. The next day I interviewed the Ispolkom Authorities . They informed me that at a staniza under the Tza rizin administration^Nizhni-Tchar—• there about 50 Coeaaoke (including a representative of the informer Ataman and some officers) who were living quite well. This staniza. is about 38 versts from the railway and about 150 versts from Tzarizin. The roads were in a very bad state and the American Relief Administration unfortunately had only one car which they were using for kitchen inspection. Even had the car been available, it would have been impossible at that time to proceed on account of the roads. The jspolkom also seemed to have no means of getting into the villages except by rail or horses, though they furnished me with the papers necessary to con duct the examination. I explained my difficulties to the American Relief Administration representative at Tzarizin,who stated that as they intended shortly to send a delegate to this staniza to examine the condition of some maize which had been sent there ,he would under- 50 take to have enquiries made regarding the condition of these/Cossacks and would let me have a report. I left Tzarizin for Astrachan at 9 p.m. on loth November by steamer "Ouritzky" . Dr.Handke of the American Relief Administration accompanied me. The steamer proceeded by day only and anchored at night and I could tell you many amusing tales of our experiences on the river,which are however not pertinent to the subject of this letter and must be left till we meet. We arrived at Astrachan on 13th ^ovemoer at 4.30 and pro ceeded to the headquarters of the Swiss Relief Mission at the "Medved" Hotel where we were quite comfortably lodged. I received a representative of the Ispolkom in the evening and the following morning the president of the Ispolkom ,Otpushanikoff,placed a car at my disposal. I explained my mission to him at the Government House and he answered with a long speech ,thanking Dr.Nansen for his action in Astrachan area through the Swiss Mission and ex- pressed a desire to help me in every way possible with the enquiry.