224 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
I am not here dealing with M. Herriot as a politician. If the
statements he made had been uttered from a political platform,
I should have no comment to make upon them: the world
knows only too well what sort of political dicta are made by
statesmen speaking in the interests of their country. But I am
now dealing with M. Herriot the traveller and administrator,
who made use of his name in international politics in order to
publish to the world an amazingly rash judgment upon the
Russian famine—a judgment which, whether intentionally or
not, constitutes a serious charge against the men and women
labouring on behalf of the thousands dying of starvation in
Russia.
It is important to treat of M. Herriot's journey for a further
reason—because it throws a startling light upon conditions
in this age of wireless, aviation and speed records of every
kind: an age in which it is possible for millions to die of hunger
in the richest agricultural districts of Europe,, while the Chinese
wall separating them from the rest of the world remains
unsealed, and even official travellers in the Soviet Union have
failed to observe a trace of the tragedy being enacted in their
immediate vicinity.
M. Herriofs expedition took from August 26 to September
9> 1933; md more than half of this fortnight was spent in
Moscow. The stay in the south took no more than five days, a
mere two days being devoted to Kiev and Odessa—or, rather,
twelve hours to Odessa and its surroundings and twelve to Kiev*
Half of this period was devoted to official receptions and
banquets, and the other half to a series of inspections in exact
accordance with a time-table worked out by the authorities
beforehand. The inspections were invariably carried out in the
presence of a numerous French company and of high Soviet
officials*
It is significant that although M. Herriot was supposed to
be travelling for information and in a private capacity, he was
accompanied not only by French journalists and Soviet