(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The difficulties which are being encountered by the Jewish settlers in Bureya will not frighten us, declares the Yiddish Communist daily “Ernes,” commenting editorially on the report submitted to the Ozet by Merezhin, head of the investigating committee which made a survey of the region designated for Jewish colonization.
Mr. Merezhin’s purpose was to look especially for the disadvantages. If the difficulties of transplanting the Jews on the soil should be considered, we would not have started to work anywhere, the paper argues.
Of the 643 Jewish pioneers who have arrived in Bureya, 107 returned home by the 10th of July. The reasons for these returns are said to be the poor selection of the transmigrant group, the early rains in the season, the lack of food and drinking water in the settlement district, the abundance of mosquitoes, the late arrival of tractors and the insufficiently organized medical relief. Speaking of the health conditions in the district the report submitted by Mr. Merezhin stated that because of the lack of boiled water the settlers were compelled to live on dry food which affected their health. The mosquitoes are plaguing the population but the settlers are learning to conquer this difficulty.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
