the territory of the Jewish Pale that there came a very large per cent of the Russians now in the United States, and the fate of the refugees who fled from this territory is a matter of very vital concern to almost every Russian immigrant here.
The Russian colony in America numbers several millions. During the decade from 1899 to 1908, the number of immigrants that came here from Russia was 1,441,883. In 1909, the number of arrivals was 120,460; in 1910, it was 186,702. This flood of immigration continued to flow incessantly up to the very beginning of the War. At the present time, there are in the United States and Canada over 300,000 Russians proper, over 1,000,000 Poles, about 3,000,000 Jews, besides people of other nationalities.
These millions of people are connected by ties of blood with millions of unfortunate inhabitants of the Western part of Russia, who were forced to leave their homes and seek safety in the interior of the country. Some of them have not heard from their kin for months at a time, sometimes for over a year. A New York Bureau, organized for the purpose of obtaining information concerning the present whereabouts of the refugees, receives hundreds of letters, and these letters are full of most pitiful entreaty. A peasant from Volhynia, now living in Connecticut, writes: "I left a wife and four children in the village of Pisuchonty. Is this territory occupied by the Germans? I have sent two letters, one a registered one, and have no reply." Another peasant, from the government of Minsk, writes: "I left Russia in 1913, and my wife and my two daughters remained. Now I know that our village has been destroyed by the Germans. Is there any way of finding out where my family is now? All the letters I write bring no reply."—"How I wish I could find my of Vilna, "I have not heard from them or about them since the beginning of the War. Yet I am very anxious to know whether they are still alive, so that I may help them."
If some means could be found whereby the Russian immigrants in the United States could get in touch with those of their relatives who have been compelled to flee from their old homes and who were supported largely by the help from their relatives here, both sides would feel a great relief. At least one phase of the complicated problem, the Russian-American part of it, would be near a satisfactory solution.
