226 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
cow and pigs. At the moment the Government is even anxious
for each worker to have his cow." It sounds absolutely idyllic
in those regions afflicted by the famine.
A few miles away from Odessa and Belyaevka is the site of
the formerly flourishing German Black Sea settlements—now
a scene of death and destruction. Dozens of letters on this point
may be seen at the offices of the "Brethren in Distress" dating
precisely from the period of M. Herriot's visit. The contrast
is striking. In a later article (Pester Lloyd^ October i) M.
Herriot confidently declares: "Nowhere did I find a sign of
distress, not even in the German villages, which had been
described as suffering from famine." According to the latest
figures 140,000 Germans died in Russia in 1932-3. The
"Brethren in Distress/' the Committee of the Christian
Churches in Geneva, and other bodies, have reliable informa-
tion, on the strength of which they have attempted to help
the German settlements in the south by sending food; but
M. Herriot thinks himself entitled to dispute the existence of
famine in these settlements.
After this first great piece of stage-management M. Herriot
and his suite had completed their studies of Odessa and the
surroundings and proceeded on their tour. There had also
been a banquet in honour of the guests. After hearty farewells
—it appears that M. Herriot and the Soviet press were equally
satisfied—they entered their special coaches and made the
night journey to Kiev, the second stage of the visit to the
Ukraine. Kiev is, of course, next to Kharkov, the town in the
south most severely afflicted by the famine and its attendant
phenomena. M. Herriot was now in the centre of the agricul-
tural districf of the Ukraine, the best place from which to
undertake a serious study of the position. With the help of
trained interpreters he might perhaps have obtained in the
course of a few days, in spite of all difficulties, a fairly correct
picture of the situation and one not unduly coloured by official
influences.