The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1919. A NEW REPUBLIC.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 127, 29 May 1919, Page 4

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

THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1919. A NEW REPUBLIC.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the tcrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that mr can do.

Xews from Russia is still extremely bewildering and mysterious, and it is possible that in the general confusion the recent references to the advance of \ an Esthonian army toward Petrograd i may have paseed almost unnoticed, so far as the majority of our readers arc concerned. Yet it is very probable that the forces of this small and almost unknown State may play a decisive part in freeing Russia from Bolshevism and saving her people from the abyss of anarchy and blood into which they have been plunged. As a matter of fuct, Esthonia, which has only just emerged i from the ranks of the subject nationalities, is the first product of that disintegrating process through which Russia j began to pass ac soon as the Revolution ' succeeded and the Czar was deposed. The | Esthonian people, though long subject to j Russian rule, are but slightly Slavonic in racial characteristics, being by descent closely related to the Mongols and Tartars. For many centuries they have endured and resented the tyranny of the Russians and the ascendancy of the German "Baltic Barons" who have controlled the resources of the country ever since the Knights of the Teutonic Order, in the thirteenth century, ■•converted, the population of the Baltic Coast from idolatry by means of the sword. When the ' Russian Autocracy fell, the Germans had thtt effrontery to proclaim to the world that Esthonia was a German colony, which would speedily declare ;ts adhesion to the Teutonic Empire. But the Esthonians hate the Germans even more bitterly than they detest the Russians, and the treatment they have recently received from the Germans has strongly intensified their hostility towards their western neighbours. The people of pure Ea-Uionian stock number only about ono and a-half millions; but of the total population only 2 per cent, are Russians, and only o per cent, are Germane—a sufficient commentary on t!ie German claims to L authority in these regions. As soon as ever the Russian Revolution was an accomplished fact the Esthonians, with remarkable unanimity, decided to seize their opportunity and establish themselves as an autonomous republic. They held a general election, and set up a National Council, .vhich placed executive power in the hands of a Cabinet consisting of a Prime Minister with spven colleagues. There doe.s not seem to have been the least sympathy displayed by the people for that tyranny of the proletariat which the Bolsheviks have imposed on Russia, and the National Council promptly suppressed the few Soviets that . Bolshevist emissaries organised. The Esthonian Government then established police courts, opened a large number of schools, and carried outi the work of administration so success-[ fully that six months ago the Prime Minister proudly declared that "conditions of life in Esthonia arc as safe and stable as in any civilised country in the world." But this fortunate state of affairs woe not attained without a bitter struggle. When the Bolshevist leaders saw that they were losing ground in Esthonia they c:\lled in their German allies to their aid, and the German mili-i tary dictators, while the war lasted,l treated the country v v ry much as they; treated Belgium and Serbia. They plundered the towns, robbed the banks, carried off food and machinery, and tortured and murdered the people at will. But with the corning , of peace the Ger-i mans were forced to withdraw within their own borders, and from that moment, the Esthonians have given the world a. remarkable demonstration of their i ability to manage their own affaire, and to carry on their internal public business on strictly democratic and constitutional j lines. It must be admitted that the Esthonians are after all only a handful of people as compared with the countless millions of Russia or even with the teeming population of Germany. But ! quite apart from the character and ability of the people their geographical , position renders them at the present ■ juncture an extemely important factor ! in international politics. The Estho- | nian republic includes not only the original province of Estland, but half of Livonia and several large islands off the coast, covering in all about 50,000 square kilometres. But, small as it is, ' the little State is larger than Belgium : or Holland or Denmark or Switzerland, and what it lacks in size is made up by the advantages of its position. It lies between the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga, thus covering the approach to Petrograd from the sea, and as it includes Reval and two other icefree ports, it provides the chief channel by which Western commerce finds its way into the interior of Russia. Moreover, as the great naval base of Narva and the famous fortress of Kronstadt are within the boundaries of Esthonia this province ha 3 been regarded as the "strategical backbone" of Russia ever since Petrograd became the capital of the empire of the Czars. But the : future of the new State and its present j importance must depend chiefly on the ■ qualities of the people, and here the reI cord of the Esthonians ia extremely promising. Energetic and intelligent, they have always presented a strong contrast to the Russian peasantry; and they r

have good reason to be proud of their educational standing. Hardly any of the people are illiterate, not less than 35 per cent, of them speak at least two languages in addition to their native tongue, and the University of Dorpat— where such men as Max Muller, Charles Darwin, and Metchnikoff studied— has been for many years one of the most important centres of literary culture and intellectual activity in Eastern Europe. These facts reveal the Esthonians as a people of an unusually vigorous and progressive character, and as they can put in the field an army of 150,000 brave and patriotic soldiers it is clear that in spite of the modest dimensions of the new republic it is to be considered very seriously, as a factor in the Russian problem, and may quite ! conceivably decide the destiny of j Bolshevism.