THE RUSSIAN SITUATION.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15939, 28 June 1917, Page 7

THE RUSSIAN SITUATION.

WIDESPREAD

DISORDERS.

ORGIES OF DRUNKENNESS

(By Cable—Prow Association— I Copyright.) (Australian and N. 35. Cable Association.) LONDON, Juno 26. Tho "Daily Telegraph's' 1 l'etrognul correspondent states that tho lormatiou of a Coalition Government was lireceded by remarkable disorders in tho provinces. Hideous orgies of drunkenness wore enactcd at Mtzensk, where tho ontiro garrison and many peasants raided the wino collars of a manor houso and indulged in a carousal. Who the cellars were emptied a crowd of 5000 hurried to ncignlwuriug distilleries, which they burnt alter thoy had drunk themselves into a condition of fury or coma, in several cases ending in death. Other distilleries in the neighbourhood wore saved by pouring away all the stocks. Similar excesses took place at Samara, a town of 150,000 inhabitants. A mob of demoralised soldiers looted the cellars of wino merchants and forced the local Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' delegates to destroy the wine stocks in tne town. In one town the fire brigade smashed 10,000 bottles of wine and dragged twenty butts, each containing 135 gallons of wine, into tho square, where they woro destroyed with hatchets. 'flie Council of Workmen's delegates in the early days of tho disorders distributed 1000 leaflets containing moral procepts. Later they wcro forced to arrost 20 ringleadors.