AUTONOMY POft
(MAN COLONY
600,00 Of 800,000 Teutons In
Russis Reported In
• . Greet Distress
BERLIN, Feb. 23.—Soviet Ruaaia i»
about to giva autonomy to the German
colonists on the Volga, and will make
the community, which has already been
organized by the Volfn German*, a
part of the soviet federation. Of the
KOO.OOO German colonists still reported
to be alive in Russia, Dr. Otto Fischer
of Hamburg, who is . well acquainted
with the conditions in Russia, says at
least 000,000 are in great distress. The
majority of these colonists are Cath
olics. Half of the German colonists in
Russia are along the Black Sea and
the remainder are on the Volga, in the
vicinity of Saratoff.
Some doubt ia expressed by the Ger
man press as to wether the Germans in
Russia along the Volga can be won over
to the soviet standard by giving them
autonomy because of the extreme.hard
ship* they have suffered under the bof
shevist' regime and the disorganisation
and death visited upon them by famine
and the requisitioning of their grain
and cattle by the soviet <ftverntoent.
Germans first emigrated to the Volga
area 160 years ago and GO years later
the German colonists settled along the
Black sea. Of recent years there has
been a great emigration of these Ger?
man-Russian colonists to the United
States, especially to Kansas and- North
Dakota. Many of theta also have gone
to the Argentine.
