Gareth Jones

[bas relief by Oleh Lesiuk]

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The New York Times. August 20th 1933

CARDINAL ASKS AID IN RUSSIAN FAMINE

Archbishop of Vienna Says Toll Will be Millions Unless World Heeds Plea.

CANNIBALISM REPORTED

Metropolitan of Galicia Tells of Suffering in Ukraine--Moscow Official Issues Denial.

Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES

VIENNA, Aug. 19--A striking appeal for Russian famine victims, who he declared were likely to be numbered once more by the million, was made today by Cardinal Innitzer, Archbishop of Vienna.

"In an hour whose deep seriousness must awaken a sense of responsibility in all mankind," said the Cardinal, "we feel the necessity of calling on public opinion throughout the world for help. Famine in Russia threatens members of all religions and all races equally. "It is already established that that catastrophe still obtains, even at the time of the new harvest. It will in four months reach a new peak. Once again millions of lives will be lost." "Merely to look on such a situation would be to increase the responsibility of the whole civilized world for mass deaths in Russia. It would mean to bear the guilt of the fact that, at a time when whole sections of the world are almost choked with a surplus of wheat and food, men are starving in Russia. 

Cruelty Accompanies Hunger

"Famine conditions there are accompanied by such cruel phenomena of mass starvation as infanticide and cannibalism. In the interest of the eternal laws of humanity and charity, the undersigned raises his voice and appeals to all those organizations and centres in the world which work in serving humanity and justice in order that they can undertake, before it is too late, a general plan of rescue on a basis above nationality and above religious affiliation for those who are threatened with starvation in Russia." The appeal was addressed before all to the International Red Cross, but it was made also to all those who are today negotiating for the enlargement of economic relations with Soviet Russia in order to make those negotiations dependent on the comprehension of the necessity for help in the stricken districts of that country. Representatives of various religions are invited to come to Vienna to establish a committee for this work.

Cardinal Innitzer concluded with this appeal, "rouse yourselves for a common brotherly gesture before it is too late. It is God's will." Cardinal Innitzer grounds his appeal on the fact, whose truth he declares no denial his impugned, that already hundreds of thousands have perished from hunger during a few months in Russia.

Cites Letters of Appeal

"Hundreds of touching letters from the famine-stricken North Caucasus report this, " he said. "Eyewitnesses about whose competence there can be no doubt have described shocking details of the crisis. I refer to the appeal of the Metropolitian of Galicia, Andreas Scheeptyckyj, in which the frightful suffering of the people of the Ukraine districts of the Soviet Union are grippingly reported. "An Englishman, Gareth Jones, confirms this and has established by inquiries on the spot that in some districts already a quarter of the population have perished from hunger. "The general secretary of the Nationalities Congress, Dr.Ewald Ammende, reports in a memorandum that, besides the Ukrainians and Russians, members of all other races in the Soviet Union are being frightfully involved in hunger from scarcity."

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Moscow Official Issues Denial

MOSCOW, Aug. 19 (AP).---Denying the charge by Cardinal Innitzer of Austria that millions have died of starvation in Soviet Russia in the past few months, a Foreign Office official tonight said, "There is no cannibalism and, I may say, there are no Cardinals in Soviet Russia." He described Carinal Innitzer's report of starvation and "accompanying horrors of infanticide and cannibalism" as "pure fabrication." It is generally known, however, that there has been some suffering in Russia, even to the extent of malnutrition in many cases, because of last year's poor harvest. This year's bumper crop is expected to alleviate conditions.

Thanks to Morgan Williams for supplying us with a copy of this article.  For further information on the famine,  please visit his website at www.artukraine.com  

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