CZECHOSLOVAK FORCES

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 41, 16 August 1918, Page 7

CZECHOSLOVAK FORCES

AN UNFORTUNATE DIVISION

SIBERIA COT OFF FROM THE FAR EAST. . ■ ■ , l'- >i (PUBLISHED IN THE T1MB8.) VLADIVOSTOK, 15th August. The Czecho-Slovaks in Siberia are in a dangerous position, and liable to be cut off. The foree i is distributed over three thousand miles of railway from the Volga to Lake Baikal, and is largely unarmed and deficient in equipment, clothing, artillery, and ammunition. The whole region is cut off from the Far East. The Czechs here are pathetically anxious to help their compatriots, and contemplate fighting their way from the Manchurian frontier to Baikal. They are poorly equipped, and likely to meet with disaster unless the presence of the Allied troops disheartens the Bolsheviks and Austro-German prisoner forces. The Czechs desire to relieve their compatriots before the Siberian winter. This will be impossible without Allied co-operation ■ on a larger scale than ha.i been arranged. Bridges ahead have been broken and rolling stock removed. The enemy is busily enforcing the enlistment of the local'population, while prisoners are liberally mixed with all the units, and German officers are in command.