THE PROBLEM OF RENDERING ASSISTANCE 305
special Russian relief committees. Further, since the spring of
1934 joint sessions of representatives of all these relief com-
mittees have been held under the presidency of Dr. Rushbrooke,
formerly head of the Free Churches; and at these meetings the
unanimity of all these organizations on the necessity of bringing
help to the distressed in Russia has been clearly expressed.
Alongside these efforts in England I should mention the
exemplary work of the Scottish Church, which has long pos-
sessed a special bureau to deal with the Russian relief question.
Among the various Churches and creeds in the United
States and Canada, which I visited soon afterwards, I found
just as keen an interest. Discussions between delegates of
different creeds on the Russian relief question took place in
New York with Dr. Atkinson, of the Church Peace Union, as
chairman. Representatives of the Philadelphia Quakers also
took part in these conversations; like the English Quakers, they
are particularly interested in the question.
The same happened in Canada. At Winnipeg, the centre of
the Canadian grain area, in whose neighbourhood are settled
many emigrants from Russia belonging to the most diverse
creeds (Ukrainians, Russians, Germans and Jews)3 all the local
forces (Mennonites, Catholics, Lutherans, Orthodox Church,
etc.) were united under the presidency of Dr. Mackay of the
United Churches. The representatives of all the Churches and
religious sects in Winnipeg addressed a joint manifesto to the
Canadian Prime Minister, Air. Bennett^ begging that Canada
should give her consent to the admission of Soviet Russia into
the League of Nations only on condition that measures were
taken to save the victims in Russia. This manifesto proposed
that Canada and the other states should request the Soviet
Union to allow an international commission of inqiiiry to go
to the famine areas, and offer to co-operate with the Soviet in
relieving the distress. The Canadian delegate at Geneva did»
in fact, declare that his country voted for the admission of Soviet
Russia into the League in the expectation that it would in