vities are provided and much time is spent out of doors. An
atmosphere of home life has been developed which is surprising
considering the short time the institutions have been organized and
the difficulties they have had to contend with. This plan, which I am
told is permanent, is a most encouraging feature of Madame Lelina's
work.

Requests to have children placed in the Government institutions are
turned over to a special corps of investigators. In each house there
is what is known as a poor committee which must also approve the
requests and the local soviet is required to pass upon the commitment
of the child to an institution. The large number of children taken
over by the city is due to the number of orphans and half orphans
caused by the war and to the impossibility of many poor families
providing their children with food during the recent famine. In cases
where several children of a family are taken they are placed in the
same home. Frequent opportunities for relatives to visit the homes are
provided. The amount of sickness has been surprisingly low considering
the great amount of disease in Petrograd during the last few months.
In one group of 300 children there have been no deaths within the past
nine months, and among all the children there have been very few cases
of contagious diseases.

The difficulties which Madame Lelina faces are numerous. First, Russia
has never had an adequate number of trained workers and many of those
who were trained have refused to cooperate with the present regime,
and, secondly, though the Soviet Government has adopted the policy of
turning over to the children's homes and the schools an adequate
supply of food, regardless of the suffering of the adult population,
still it has been impossible to get certain items of diet, as, for
instance, milk. It is true, however, that among these children one
sees few signs of undernourishment or famine, and in general
throughout the city the children seem much better nourished than the
adult population.

I had planned to visit other institutions but was unable to do so. I
was told of a large palace which has been taken over as a home for
mothers. Here all women who so desire are sent after childbirth with
their children for a period of two months.

The health department, which asserts that there are in addition to the
100,000 bedridden people in the city, another 100,000 who are ill
because of undernourishment though able to go to the f