NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 73, 20 December 1918, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

| It is' interesting news that- a- Russian anti-Bolshevik mission headed 'by if. Miliukoff has reached Constantinople, where, as matters now stand, it is in direct touch with the Allies. M. Miliukoff was Foreign Minister in the first Provisional Government formed in March last year by Prince Lvoff. "While ho held office and long afterwards, M! Miliukoff urged with all possible force that.Russia should honourably observe all her obligations to the Allies. Some months ago, however, it was reported that M. Miliukoff, who had gone to the 'Ukraine, was there endeavouring to promote a composition with the Germans in the hope of thereby making an end of tbe Bolshevik regime. His change of front was ascribed to a belief that Russia had forfeited all title to consideration at the hands of the Allies. M. Miliukoff is a prominent member of the Constitutional Democratic Party, and the mission he and his colleagues have undertaken no doubt means that, they are again hopeful of the effectual regeneration of their'country. All recent news from Russia points to the impending collapse of the Bolsheviki. As events are moving they are in a fair way to be restricted to a- region centring on Moscow. The British landing on the Baltic coast is apparently giving rise to much the same developments as the earlier landing on the Murman coast, where the local forces speedily organised and, with the co-operation of the Allies, ejected the Bolsheviki from an extensive tract of Northern Russia. At the same time the Bolsheviki are said to have sustained a severe defeat in the Urals region, and the way is clear for Allied intervention in Southern Russia.

I The outstanding feature of yesterday's eleetion polls for Wellington bouth and Palmerston North was the comparative smallness of the total votes cast in each instance. At the general election the votes recorded at Wellington South numbered 7624, whereas on the present occasion they were some 3000 less. Mb. Hindiursh, who was successful at the general election, poHed nearly as many votes as the ttiree candidates combined in the present contest, while Mr. Luke, the defeated candidate on that occasion, actually polled 650 votes more than Mr. Sehple, who headed yesterday's poll. There were three candidates on each occasion. At Palmerston North the total vote yesterday was 534!), _ as against 7281 at tho general election. In each case the result does not alter the. state of parties in the Jiouso of Representatives. Labour retains Wellington South, and theNationa! Government's candidate, M'k. Nash. retains the Palmerston North seat for the Government. There is this difference, however, that a sane and reasonable representative of Labour in Mr. Hindmarsh has been replaced by one who has figured as a militant Labour' Socialist of the extremist type. Mn. Sejjple told his supporters last

1 evening that the victory for Labour in Wellington South would have a great psychological effect, because he had been branded as a political bushranger. Perhaps he is right; but Labour as a whole will no doubt note the fact that whereas Mr. Hindmaksh won the seat for Labour at the last poll with the votes of '1279 electors, Me. Sejiple, with perhaps the strongest organisation that the party has ever put into the field working for him against weak opponents, could only secure the votes of 2412 electors. Still he did win, and is entitled to congratulate himself accordingly. In the midst of recent tremendous events in the war zone an incident occurred in the Arctic which attracted very little notice at the time. Involving as it did/large commercial and economic interests involving a large amount of British capita) it deserves some attention. The Spitzbergcn Archipelago for centuries has been a sort _ of No Man's- Land. Various nationalities have exploited it for business or scientific purposes, but it was not till 1914 that an international conference convened by Norway began to discuss the future control of the group. The war stopped the proceedings. Nothing was done. Spitzbcrgen next cropped up in the Brest Litovsk Treaty, into which the Germans slipped a clause providing, it is stated, for the international organisation of , Spitzbergen i on a footing of equality for both parties. Russia, has never had any proprietary claims to the group, hut with characteristic cupidity the Germans, recognising the immensely rich mineral resources, sought to profit by a temporary ascendancy in the military situation, to, so to speak, secure a leg-in. The next act of tHis little sub-polar comedy was a British expedition to the group, the destruction of the German wireless station and establishments, and the hoisting of the British flag. Mr. Salisbury-Jones, who was with the British expedition to the group, put i tl\e political significance of this development in a nutshell in the following remark to an interviewer :— "Spitzbergcn will never he another Heligoland to , this country. On the contrary, it will be Britain's Arctic Gibraltar, the northern entrance to our islands, for it possesses the most magnificent deepwater harbours I have ever seen in my world travels. "When we nave clinched our hold on Spitzbergcn wc shall be able to meet,not only Britain's coal and iron requirements, but also those of the great Scandinavian and North-West Russia markets." So another German dream was exploded.