RUSSIA'S OUTLOOK

Evening Star, Issue 15906, 11 September 1915, Page 9

RUSSIA'S OUTLOOK

BRIGHTENS WITH WINTER.

London 'Times' and Sydney 'Sun' Servioes.

LONDON, September 10. ' The Times's'** correspondent at Petrograd says that the Tsar's assuming the leadership of the Russian army and navy has not caused surprise. The effefct has been to intensify the sentiment of the TOuntry that the war must and will be' earned on to a victorious end. Colonel Repingtoh writes in ' The Times': " The fortunes of war are variable. The end is in view of the unfavorable conditions of the Russians' retreat from the Vistula Jine. Their armies are now well placed and able to carry out an orderly i-etreat, fighting where thev please and as long as they wish, until the wet season, whach has -ilreadv begun. Then snow wili impose a halt 'on the German armies, leading them in winter quarters in a. devastated country. 1 '

RUSSIAN DEMOCRACY.

REFORM SPIRIT GROWS.

PETROGRAD, September 10. (Received September 11, at 9.45 a.m.) A conference has opened between Ministers and representatives of the Progressive Parliamentary Block. A majority -of the Government are in favor of cooperation with the Block, whose platform includes autonomy for Poland, conciliation towards Finland, removal of the disabilities of the Jews, enlargement of trade ■anion and artisans' rights, amnesty for political and religious offences, and extension of local self-government. [ln a review of a book bv Gregor Alexinsky entitled 'Russia arid "the Greit War,'the 'Nation' says that the interest ot ; this book lies in its evidence that with the object of giving Rii«-a her full caaDce .in European society, all that is , , best in Russia passionately desires the cooperation of British and French democracy and the failure of the pro-German element. This element has its roots in the Germanised bureaucracy, has had its friends at Court, and was most powerful when it-was led by the late M. Witte, the creator of the monopoly in alcohol. In the Press this pro-German- element finds representation in such papers as the organ of the Black Hundreds (the ' Russkoie ' Znamia'), which -praises Germany •■ as the _ incarnation of a national power,'- and hopes that she will succeed in changing France from a Republic to a Monarchy! The same paper justified the German execution of Russian. students in Belgium, for the sole reason that thev were. Jews. This is the party which desires to separate Russia from the. Allies and to conclude a treacherous peace with Germany. It has, one hopes, received a crushing blow in the union of the Tsar, the Panslavist party, and the Progressives, which gave birth to a , Ministry resting, in some degree, on a parliamentary policy. M. ' Alexinsky does not disguise his belief that the reaction has had much to do with the comparative failure of Russian diplomacy and even of Russian arms. In the sphere of administration it has succeeded in nullifying the Grand Duke Nicholas's proclamation to the Poles. It is responsible for the senseless repression of national feeling and institutions which marked the Russian governorship of Galicia, where it succeeded in alienating not only the' Poles ,and the Jews but the Ruthenians, and in feeding the pro-Austrian reaction. M Alexinsky suspects it of downright treachery to the Russian State ! no less than to tho compact among the members of the Entente. Its endeavor to chill- the wonderful renaissance of Russian patriotism is not open to doubt. \ T o adequate record of this latter movement lias vet reached Western Europe. We have heard of the manifesto to the Poles. But the Tsar's proclamation to the Armenian people, and his visits to the Caucasus, to the Armenian cathedral at Tifiis, and to the chief, centres of the Russian Armenians, have passed almost unnoticed. Not less important was the invitation to the ■Zemstvos, the municipalities, the universities, the scientific societies, and other private associations to organise tho hospitals and ambulance service.]

WHO ARE THE SAVAGES? SOME FRUITS OF KULTUR, GERMANY'S DIABOLICAL TREATMENT ■ N OF WOUNDED RUSSIAN PRISONERS. London 'Times' and Sydney 'Sun' Sertrioea , LONDON, September 10. A member of tha British Bed Cross Society, by courtesy of the Russian- and Swedish authorities, witnessed the exchange of Russian and German wounded prisoners. The former were sent to Stockholm ir. barges, under the care of the Swedish Red Cross, and weir© thence transported to.Xornea.. "It difficult," says the writer, "to find words to describe the dreadfulness of ™ of the poor Russians. iiiey hardly bore the semblance of human beings as they _ left the barms, bent, dazed, and limping. Every man was in rags; few had coats, and many were witnout shirts or socks; .whole theii' boots were dilapidated. Cripples supported themselves on crutches made out of lids of packing-cases. All were emaciated to the last degree. Some had lost their wits and their memory. Notliing but contamied and long-sustained -neglect could have seduced them to such a condition. _ " The .contrast presented by the condition of the Gennan prisoners was indescribable. All were in full uniform, with good boots and proper crutches. They ■were in good spirits, and laughed and 3\*ed. The sights convinced me that the Germans are waging war like a brutal. half-civilised people. Only the German authorities -will probably ever know how many thousands of enemy wounded died tinder the treatment which produced sucb human wreckages."