Paris Peace Conference 184.02202/13: Telegram
The Consul at Helsingfors ( Haynes ) to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
[Received in Paris March 31, 11 a.m.]
28. From Pettit to American Mission.
The Director of Sanitation and Health of Petrograd and his corps of doctors are not Communists, but are cooperating with the Soviet Government on condition that there shall be no political interference in their work. The population of Petrograd, the Director estimates as 1,000,000. Between 30,000 and 40,000 are in hospitals; 70,000 are seriously ill at home, to whom it is possible to give but one tenth the necessary food. In addition there are 100,000 who are sick but able to go to city kitchens. Most of these have swollen limbs and other ailments brought on by lack of food. The death rate in Petrograd is 125 a day. There are 4,300 cases of spotted typhus and 18 deaths daily from this disease. The number of smallpox cases is less. Enteric typhus is increasing and cholera and bubonic plague are also expected this spring. Thirty-five hundred houses have broken sewer and water pipes and are a menace to health.
The food question is the chief concern of the population. In one month 105 deaths from starvation were reported. The only part of the population not actually hungry is the children who are fed in schools or in homes. In the last nine months 30,000 have been placed in small groups in requisitioned homes and arrangements are made to take 10,000 more in the next three months. I have visited these homes and have enjoyed the meals furnished these children. A wonderful family spirit has been developed among them. Milk is difficult to secure and there is no canned milk in the city. Seven seriously ill children in a hospital I visited yesterday were without milk of any kind, and the nurses and officials in charge of social work begged me to secure a little tinned milk for sick babies. The government has discontinued all passenger traffic until April 10th and is succeeding in bringing to Petrograd from 60 to 100 cars of food a day. Fats, however, are difficult to secure. Pettit.