RUSSIANS EVACUATE REVAL AND PSKOFF.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 57, 23 February 1918, Page 5

RUSSIANS EVACUATE REVAL AND PSKOFF.

NO GUNS AVAILABLE FOR DEFENCE OF PETROGRAD. GERMANS DEMAND POSSESSION OP THE BALTIC FLEET. (Received 11.10 a.m.) LONDON, February 22. Petrograd advices report that a Bolshevik proclamation has been issued ordering the Russians to resist the German advance. A German official message says:—We have entered Minsk, capital of the Minsk province, northward of the Pripet marshes.—(A. and N.Z. and Reuter.) Amsterdam telegrams state that Germany regards the proposals of the Brest Litovsk conference as annulled, and it is believed that she is now determined to demand the whole Baltic coast, including possession of the Russian Baltic fleet. The Germans levied a -fine of 250,000 marks on Warsaw as punishment for the recent disorders. The Russians in panic have evacuated Reval, at the head of the Gulf of Finland, and Pskoff, on Lake Pskoff. The Bolsheviks hastily considered a scheme for defending Petrograd, but when they assembled at the council table it was ascertained that the available guns were in an appalling condition, essential parts being missing in consequence of the activities of German agents in the early days of the revolution. The troops were ordered to dig trenches outside the capital, but saner counsels prevailed with realisation that the city can be easily starved, the Germans commanding the railway systems. The Allied Embassies are besieged by anxious inquirers, who have been informed that their departure can be arranged only in the event of the Germans reaching Petrograd. It is reported that forty-five German warships are steaming towards Reval, where troops are being landed. His landlord ejected M. Litvenoff, the Bolshevik Ambassador, from his offices in Victoria Street, on the ground that he had not observed the clause prohibiting propaganda.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) NEW YORK, February 22. The New York "World's" Petrograd correspondent states that the opinion of Bolshevik headquarters i, that the Germans will add new and harsher conditions before peace terms are signed.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)