RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16408, 31 December 1918, Page 7

RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

BOLSHEVIK TERRORISM. TERRIBLE TORTURES AND ATROCITIES. (Renter's Telegram#.) (Received December 81st, 1.25 ft.ro.) LONDON, December 30. Mr Jeffreys states that the great evils related pale before the atrocities and tortures regularly applied throughout Russia in pursuance of Trotsky's terrorising policy. A nephew of no os-Russian Ambassador, Irish fugitives, and others give sickening details. Men are dismembered . alivo, officers are branded with red-hot iron* on their naked shoulders, hung to trees head downwards, and flayed alive. Prisoners aro confined to cellars, which are slowly flooded. . A party of ex-officers who were caught in Volhynia when trying to roach Poland were stripped, their teeth broken with hammers, their tongues torn out. ami their palpitating bodies cast into the snow.

THE FATE OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. (By Cable.— Pppss Association—Copytigiit.) (Australian and N. 2. Cablo Association.) LONDON, December -!'• Prince Lvov, ox-Promior of Russia, .interviewed in London, said ho was imprisoned at Ekaterinburg last spring, on a chargo oi engaging in the counter revolution. A party was brought in April into a. largo house opposite Princo Lvov's window, under a largo guard, indicating that they were persons of importance. Prince Lvov learned from n fellow prisoner, Princo Dolgouroki, that the new arrivals wero tlio ox-Czar and his family. Tho Tsarevitcli, being at. Tobolsk, did not arrive at Ekaterinburg until a fortnight later. Tho entire family was coniined in ono largo room, sentries being posted in the corridors. Tho Red Guards carried out tho murders in July. The Cr.eclio-Slo-vaks soon atter captured Ekaterinburg. A judge was appointed to investigate! the crimo, and decided that the whole family had been killed at different. times. Some members of tho family were compelled to witness the murder of others. There was no doubt that all wero finally shot.. Tho evidonco indicated that all wero shot in their chairs thirty-six bullot-holos being found' in tho walls. Tho Bolsheviks appear also to havo riddled tho bodies after they had fallou to the floor, which was blood-stained and pitted bv bullets. It is probable that tno bodies* wore incinerated, human remains and * jewellory, including a cross mountod with emeralds, belonging to the -Empross, being discovered in another part of tho town. Subsequently all the occupants of tho prison, numbering eighty-eight, except Princo Lvov and Prince Dolgouroki, woro murdered, also the Czar's pex-sonal doctor.

BOLSHEVIK INVASION OF POLAND. COPENHAGEN. Decembor 27. Russian Bolsheviks are preparing to invade Poland, advancing on Kovnoanc Vilna. The Polish Government hai 60,000 soldiers at its disposal, but possesses little equipment, having only <0 guns and a few old aeroplanes. Poland has sent an appeal to tho Allies for help. THE BOLSHEVIK PEACE OFFER. LONDON, December 27. ' It is understood that the Government refuses to consider M. Litvinoff's peace offer, since the Entente does not recogiiiso the Bolshevik Government. • BOLSHEVIKS v. POLES. ; 1 AMSTERDAM, December 27. ' A pitched battl© took place at Dombrova between tho Bolsheviks and the n Poles, but the result is unknown. , THE JAPANESE ARMY IN SIBERIA. NEW YORK, December 28. A United Press Tokio message states: ' According to a Press announcement Japan intends to withdraw half her army from Siberia.