Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-11-02 | Page 25 | Many Americans Found Suffering Odessa

Many A mericans Found Suffering in Odessa HELP EXTENDED TO TIE NEEOT BTipOSS Many of the Destitute Are Women Widely Separated From Husbands and Sons. Natives of the Country Also Are Found to Be in Condition Con-dition of Extreme Want. WARSAW, Nov. 1. (By the Associated Asso-ciated Press.) Captain Leo F. McGuirc of Tulsn, Okla.,or tiie Red Cross mission mis-sion to Poland, found many Americans in distress in Odossa when ho was sent to that city recently to bring out the wives and children of Polish army officers offi-cers and men. who had been left there when the troops withdrow Inst April. Many of tho Americans, he says, wen; women whose husbands wero ill America Amer-ica nnd some were mothers of sons iu the United States. The American civil-I civil-I inns petitioned the Red Cross agents co report their condition to any nearby near-by American consulate in the hope of obtaining immediate help. They had little money and were contriving by uncertain means to kcop,body and soul together. Captain MeGuire brought to Poland much mail for their families in America. The troops of General Denekiue, aided by British and French had Captured Cap-tured the city from tho Bolshevik i when Captain "McGuiro reached Odessa, but the people of tho city were iu various stages of misery. Thousands Robbed. "Though the Bolshevik batteries that had pounded tho city from near-by hills finally had been silenced, Odessa was still haunted by tho terror of the late Bolshovik regime," writes Captain MeGuire. "Bands 'of anarchists were scattered throughout tho town and their armies were 011I3' thirteen miles distant. dis-tant. Revolution seemed to be fomenting foment-ing and distracted throDgs of miserable people wire clamoring for safety and escape from another period of terror. "People who were rich before the Bolshevist occupatiou of the city and who were so lucky as to have concoatod their treasures were selling jewels, furniture, fur-niture, linens and all superfluous be- , longings to obtain a meagre ration of bread. "Tho Polish women and children for whom we had come to this great Blaolc Sea port were a bewildered and frightened fright-ened lot who had managed to escape with their lives through agonizing times of calumny, corruption and terror. All told the same tale of cruelty, lie fore leaving the city tho Bolsheviki had forced their unhappy Polish prisoners to give up to them more than l.uiiO.oO'i rubles. This left them utterly witlipu! funds. Prices Are Fantastic. "Fantastic prices for commodities made living conditions insupportable. Black bread cost JuO rubles a pound. Butter 130 rubles. One chicken cost a thousand rubles, and a glass of drijflcilSE water two rubles. Four kinds of money were current, that of the Kcrepsky regime, the Bolshevist, Ukranian and special Odessa ruble. A penny box of matches brought 15 rubles, and shoes, when they could be obtained, brought untold thousands of rubles. These es traordinury prices menu starvation for thousands of people. "Disease was prevalent. Typhus and cholera have long since worked their deadly way among the enormous drift ing population. Yet tho number of inhabitants in-habitants continues to increase. Before Be-fore the war Odessa had COO.Ono people; now it lias more than LC0O,000. "It was heartbreaking not to be able to rescue the thousands of Poles who had taken refuge in Odessa and were unable to leave. Their number is said to bo 30,000. All were longing to return to their own country. ' ' UNIQUE ASSOCIATION FORMED AT HAMBURG Comprises PersoiiH Who Have Btsen Convicted of Technical Violations of tlic Law. HAMBURG. Xov. L (By the Associated Associ-ated Press.) A large number of those persons in Ha mburg, who have been pun-iHiied pun-iHiied for crime, especially for technics violations of Jaw, have banded together and formed a society termed the "Gen-1' Ual Association of Previously Convicted Persons." Jt has established its own paper to represent rep-resent its views, and intends to extend Its membership all over Germany. Criminals Crim-inals guilty or serious crime will not be admitted. The following demands have been mado on the government: Immediate Issue of an amnesty and the abolition of the death sentence.. Ilapid reorganization of the cGnnan flaphl reorganization Of the German trained ex-onvicts and representatives of the proletariat. Exhaustive k. organization of tho punishment pun-ishment of crime. Abolition of military courts. A law which obligates the state, the conimuncH and the employers to give eni-pioymcnt eni-pioymcnt to convicted persons on equal terms with Innocent persons. luiport Fair Is Success. Ff:AXKKim-ON-MAJX. Nov. I. I Cy the Associated Press. The import i'air was opened recently in Frankfort, with oO.OOO exhibitors, only 120 of whom are from COU mries other than Germany, among them a number from the United State