THE HOUR HAS STRUCK

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 27, 1 August 1917, Page 7

THE HOUR HAS STRUCK

RUSSIAN CABINET'S APPEAL.

LONDON, 23rd July,

The remodelled Provisional Government has issued a proclamation beginning : —

"Citizens, —The fatefuj hour has struck."

It declares: —"The Kaiser's armies have broken the Russian front, facilitated by the criminal levity and blind fanaticism of some' and the treachery of others. Both threaten the very foundations of the new Russia. The hidden forces of \counter-revolution raise their heads, but 11 the Government is confident of the recuperation of the country and the strength of the people, and will act with all the enegy. and resolution that the exceptional circumstances demand. The first capital problem is tho appreciation of the strength of the struggle against the foreign foe and the defence of the new Government against anarchical and counter-revolutionary attempts, against which it will not hesitate to take the most rigorous steps. DEMOCRATIC IDEALS REAFFIRMED. "Simultaneously the Government will "demonstrate again by its foreign policy that the army can only fight with the firm conviction that not a drop of Russian blood shall be shed for foreign ends, and reaffirm the universally-proclaimed sentiments of the democratic right in pacific pronouncements. It_ is, therefore, summoning an inter-Allied Conference for August to decide on the general orientation of the Allies'* foreign policy : a.nd co-ordinate actions in regard to their application to. the Russian revolution. The principles of Russia will be represented at the Conference by democratic representatives, as well as by diplomatists. Steps are proceeding for the election of the Constituent Assembly on 30th i September. The chief internal problem is the introduction of the most rapid possible autonomy for municipalities and Zemstvos on the basis of direct, equal, and secret universal suffrage." Tho Proclamation concludes: —"A de~cree will shortly be promulgated abolishing class ranks ot officials and all decorations, except for great military deeds."