The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1919. KOLCHAK'S RETREAT.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 191, 13 August 1919, Page 6

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1919. KOLCHAK'S RETREAT.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the torong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tec tan do.

The news of Admiral Kolehak's fortunes grows rapidjy worse. It was in May that his very promising advance from the Urals into Russia was checked and the Bolsheviks began a strong counter-offensive, and now, in the middle of August, lie is SOO miles cast of the positions he held in the spring. He lias apparently been driven right out of Kltropean Russia, yielding large areas to the Bolsheviks, in which they can get fond, manufactured goods, and recruits for their armies. The disaster has surprised the Admiral's friends. Three months ago there was a widespread conviction that the days of Bolshevism were numbered. The advance of Ko'lehak from the cast and Dcnilcin from the south, the successes of the anti-Bolshevik Russian forces and the British contingent in the far north, and the progress of the Finns and Ksthonians towards l'trograd, made people feel certain that the LeninTrotsky regime would soon collapse. This opinion was shared by some of the best-infonip-d writers on Russian affairs. Dr. Harold Williams, for instance, writing in the spring, was quite confident that Bolshevism could not last much longer. Today the situation is this: Kolchak has been so heavily defeated that there is no hope of a resumption this year of his attempt to free Russia; indeed, the question now is whether he can save his movement from utter collapse. Some of the anti-Bolshevik forces in the north have mutinied, the Bolsheviks have gained ground, and the liritish are about to leave the country. The Finns have apparently abandoned their campaign; at any rate they have elected a President opposed to intervention. The Esthonians are being driven back. Denikin was recently checked, but since then he has captured the important city of Poltava, and there is an unconfirmed report that he is marching on Moscow. There have also been reports of anti-Bolshevik successes in the Ukraine and of Polish progress in the Minsk area- The balance of the lighting during the last three months has been markedly in the Bolsheviks' I favour.

Tho reason given in our newo to-day for Kolchak's retreat —that he is outnumbered and ill-equipped—is supported by a dispatch sent by a "Times" correspondent at Omsk when tho retreat began. "Wo underrated the enemy," he wrote, "not allowing ourselves time to produce reserves sufficiently trained to

compensate for the superiority in numbers on the other slue. The Reds can draw upon a population ten times as numerous as our own, and, with the assistance of fanatical communists and foreign mercenaries, can force unwilling hordes to enter the fray. We cannot hope to overthrow an enemy so vastly stronger in numbers unless we are able to set oil quantity by quality." The Kolchak army, Hushed with success overran tho limits of discretion and, weakened by losses and without adequate reserves, was unable to withstand the vigorous Counter-offensive of tho enemy. Kolchak has no considerable industrial equipment for the manufacture of munitions; he is dependent on what he can get from his friends, and this has to be conveyed long distances over a railwaysystem 'which is not working well. The Bolsheviks have the old Kussian war

factories for munition-making, and no doubt they are being helped by' German industrial experts. It is significant that Dcnikin, to whom Britain has been able to send equipment much more easily, has done far better than his colleague. But we fear that lack of men and munitions is not the only cause of Kolchak's defeat. The announcement of the British withdrawal, and of the decision of the Allies not to intervene directly in Russian affairs, must have had a depressing effect on his armies.

It must be admitted that the Bolsheviks arc showing considerable military, capacity. In the early days of the revolution, when pence was their aim, the Russian extremists had no scruples in turning the army into a mob. Discipline went to tne winds. A humiliating peace was better than lighting Germany. But now that it is Bolshevism and not Russia that has to be protected, Russians must light, willingly or unwillingly, and light under discipline. To what extent the Bolshevik armies are directed by Germans or by Russian officers of the old regime is not certain, but it is quite dear that, balancing victories against defeats, the Lenin armies have been ably led and proved themselves formidable opponents during the last few months. They are doing what •Germany was able to do for so long— dealing with their scattered enemies in detail, with the help of interior lines and a centralised command. Bolshevik efficient'}' is also shown in the torpedoing- of two British destroyers by a submarine in the Baltic. In the first wild days of the revolution this would hardly have been possible. Once, in, those days,.

when a submarine dived, the sailor in charge of the hatch refused to close it, on the ground that h e had not been consulted, nnd was having his rest; and as a result some of the crew were drowned Tho officer in command was sent to Siberia for the offence of having given the man an order when he was off duty! The sinking of the British destroyers leads one to suspect that there is a leaven of German skill in the submarine service. We must face the probability that these Bolshevik successes have given the cause a renewed lease of life, and perhaps a long lease. Uutimately Bolshevism, as it exists to-day, must giveway to something else, if only because under it the country will sink into economic death. In the meantime there is the tremendous danger that kr exhausted Russia will fall under German influence, and be exploited for German benefit and distant German ambitions.