RUSSIA, THE LAST SEAT OF WARFARE

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 139, 9 December 1918, Page 6

RUSSIA, THE LAST SEAT OF WARFARE

In Germany, as in Russia, the evolution of the new form of government ;s wrapped in mystery; but it is a, fact that, under the terms of the armistice, the Allies have a first-class military grip on the German situation, and can intervene in Berlin much more rapidly than in Moscow. In this connection, there is a movement to improve the Allies' position in Russia, by effecting new concentrations in the Baltic and the Black Seas. British naval squadrons and flotillas have reached LibaH and Reval, to which latter port they have been invited by the Esthonian Government. Also, the Turkish and ex-Russian warships in the Black Sea appear to have passed into the Allies' hands without a struggle; The net effect is that the Bolsheviks, who formerly had to contend with the Czecho-Slovaks on the Volga and the Allied North Russian expedition on the Dwina, must now consider a Baltic front and a Black Sea front, established through the sea-power of countries who have not enmity to the New Russia, but who insist on her responsibility for just debts and on themaintenance of some sort of civilised order. The occupation of Reval is an important step towards settling the Rsthonia, Livonia, Courland, and Lithuania questions on lines of genuine self-determination. Owing to the submission of Germany and the re-opening of the Baltic, the Baltic provinces of Russia are no longer at the mercy of the Bolsheviks, and the Finland question, no longer influenced from Berlin,, may eveu Settle itself; If Moscow, like Berlin; i« regulated—not tfecossarily occupied—the jurisdiction of the Peace Cbnference over the map cf Europe will become complete.