The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY JULY 15, 1918. RUSSIA AND THE ALLIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 167, 15 July 1918, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY JULY 15, 1918. RUSSIA AND THE ALLIES.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we am do.

The reported arrival of an Allied expeditionary force on the Munnan coast, in Northern Russia, at least helps to assure us that the Entente Powers are fully alive to the dangers of the present situation. With the Russian people torn into factions, and plunged in internecine warfare, it is practically impossible to organise effective resistance to the German penetration movement, in either a military or an economic sense, unless and until the AHiee can provide a nucleus round which the forces of nationalism and patriotism can tfoneentrate. There is ample evidence to show that the mass of the Russian people would welcome a lead from any of the Entente Powers, if once they were certain that the proffered aid was offered in a disinterested) epirit, and that the Allies wonld not under any circumstances utilise their position in Russia for their own advantage. But, •■unfortunately, as •Wβ have pointed out, Japan is the only Power in a position to intervene promptly, and ever 6ince the great war in the Far East the Russians have not unnaturally regarded the Japanese with mingled suspicion and aversion. It k> still doubtful whether even if America agrees Japan •win be prepared to undertake the tremendous and invidious responsibilities of a militaTy movement through Siberia. But in the meantime the Allies have apparently resolved to take -whatever risk may be involved in keeping the new White Sea ports open and securing this line of communication between Petrograd and the outer worlds and so, in a sense, the die is cast—the Entente Powers have definitely committed themselves to a policy of intervention in Russia. How the majority of Russians themselves iwill take this new move remaine to be seen. So far the Social Revolutionary party has declared for the Allies, and is prepared to welcome them enthusiastically. This is quite in keeping iwith the pro-Ally sympathies always expressed iby this section of the Russian ■people, and with the tone of the manifesto which it lately issued, appealing j for help to the Entente Powers. On the otheT hand, the Bolsheviks have declared that Allied intervention constitutes in effect an act of war, and are preparing | to resist. Of course, they can depend upon the assistance of the Germans, and, unfortunately, the Central Powers have now as auxiliaries a strong Finnish anriy, "which was originally organised to save Finland from the reign of terror that the Bolshevik Red Guards had set 1 , up there. It is one of the most pathetic j illustrations of the irony of Fate which J

this war has supplied that the who have struggled so long and so bravely for their own freedom, should now be found fighting at once on, the side of the ■worst domestic tyranny and the .worst foreign tyranny that' the Russian people have yet had to endure. But it could not be expected that the Allies would 'he able to dispatch to this distant Cjuarter a force strong enough to fight its way southward into the heart of Russia against the overwhelming military superiority of the Central Powers. ThcTe are to be 50 German and Austrian divisions between Finland and the Black Sea, and the only hope for any decisive success for us is either that the advent of the Allies in the north will arouse the dtxrmant spirit of nationalism throughout Russia, or that the Czecho-Slovak erusadc, which is meeting -with unexpected and dramatic success in Siberia and in Central Russia, may provide the basis for a solidly organised patriotic movement that iwill at least render the situation of the German armies in Russia difficult and precarious. But for the moment it cannot be denied that the present conditions are all in favour of the Central Powers; and ,we need not feel surprised that the newspapers 'which represent Imperial opinion at Berlin are calling loudly for direct intervention in Russia on the ground that the Russian Government needs help to repel the invaders. The Pan - Germans are girding themselves for therr new task, solemnly warning the nation that the Allies mean to force a way down from the White Sea to Petrograd. and eventually to effect a junction with Japanese armies advancing from the East, the Cossack forces of General Seinenoff, which are still operating in Siberia and the Czecho-Slovaks, who just now form the chief obstacles to a Gctman triumph in European Russia itself. Of course, all this, if it were possible, would be very' satisfactory from the standpoint of the Allies; but at present it can hardly be said to fall within the range of the practicable. However, we need not assume that the Germans believe it. What the Junkere and the Pan-Germans need is merely a pretext to supply plausible grounds for the military occupation and subjugation of the whole of Russia; and they have grasped eagerly at the landing of this Allied Expeditionary force in the north to serve their purpose. Already they have gone a long way towards the accomplishment of their final object in Russia. Their forces have penetrated to the Volga, they have entered the rich country j of the Don Cossacks, and they are aiming at the occupation of the Baku region, with its wonderful oilfields. Of course, if they collapse on the West soon, they will have no time to consolidate their position in the East. But for the moment they have a great deal in their favour, and much may depend upon the way in which the Allied forces which have landed in the north can hold their own in the initial stages of the coming crisis, and can impress themselves favourably upon the imagination of the Russian people.