THE PROBLEM OF RENDERING ASSISTANCE 301
International Red Cross at Geneva, as he had been requested to
do. This sealed the fate of his endeavours. The Soviet Russian
Red Cross has long been one of the members of the Inter-
national Committee. This means that the International Com-
mittee cannot act in any question concerning Russia without
first asking the Soviet Russian Red Cross in Moscow for its
opinion. So, with reference to Dr. MowinckePs proposal^ the
International Committee sent a letter to the Soviet Russian
Red Cross. That body—as was only to be expected—returned
a purely negative answer in the usual tone, expressing surprise
that such statements and suggestions could come from the
Geneva Committee.
Even in face of the irrefutable evidence, since forthcoming,
of the vast number of deaths in South Russia, Moscow still
flatly denies that there has been any famine or any victims.
This confirms what has often been said, that any discussion
with Moscow about relief action can only be successful if the
negotiators have the support of world opinion. Negotiations
set on foot without any such support from world opinion
cannot possibly end in anything but failure, for otherwise
Moscow has not the slightest interest in abandoning its point of
view. Only considerations of world opinion—or, more correctly,
af its reactions on its economic and political interests, can
cause Moscow to modify its attitude. For as things are to-day,
the Soviet State, politically and economically, is still largely
dependent on the shaping of its relations with the Great
Powers and many other states.
There could, then, be no doubt that a modest inquiry w.
Soviet quarters regarding the possibility of relief action, if
this went beyond the scope of the Torgsin operations tolerated
by the powers that be, was doomed to failure in advance. But
the boldness with which the Soviet Government flatly denies
the existence of the famine is doubtless explained by another
circumstance, and one which perhaps shows as clearly as any
the dependence of European statesmen on the immediate