RUSSIA.

Evening Star, Issue 16848, 25 September 1918, Page 6

RUSSIA.

INCONCEIVABLE INFERNO. NO PROSPECT OF BETTERMENT. WHAT WINTER WILL BRING WASHINGTON, September 24. (Received Sept-ember 25, at 8.50 a.m.) The State Xtepaxtmeirfc has received coiinrnvation of the appalling conditions in Kussia. There is a, ruthless slaughter of officers and leading citizens, who are shot in cellars at night with guns muffled by silencers The French and British ConsulsGeneral at Moscow have been arrested. LONDON, September 24. (Received September 25, at 6.50 a.m.) An almost impenetrable veil bides the chaos in Russia from tho rest of Euirope. The only nows available comes fragmentsrity and intermittently from the Allies' official agents and from occasional! refugees who reach Scandinavia, after abandoning tbek belongings and bribing their way into oeourity. 'litis gives few details of "the dreadful horrors being enacted, but enough is known to show that Russia is sunk in tho depths of anarchy, in which incendiarism, murder, a-nd i tit amy of all descriptions 'are running mad riot. Rohahle accounts estimate that the murders in P-etrograd alone reach 500 daily. There is no sign of the appearance of any stabilising element, and' there is the terrible prospect of anarchy and disorders already far -exceeding the worst horrors of the French or any other revolutions proceding unchecked. It is estimated in Paris that seven- million Russians aro doomed irretrievably to starvation during the coming winter, which period the absolute breakdown of t'hfl distribution of coal and firewood promises to be only one of the lesser evils. Copenhagen rejrorts state that Petrograd is ."subsisting mostly upon rats, dogs, and mice. Tliis may be an exaggeration, but no doubt unbelievable lorrors ore being suffered ami perpetrated by the worklefis, foodlesis populations-. The British aro striving to secure the release of the Nationals (international dip lomats), including Sir Robert- Lockhart.

LATE TSAR'S DIARY. Renter's Telegrams. LONDON, September 24. (Received September 25, at 9.35 a.m.) An interesting picturo of the late Tsar's Ifi-o after his abdication is gleaned from fairly full extracts from his diary, published in the Bolslk vist newspapers. These extracts record his sorrowful arrival at Tsarkoy Selo in 1917, w-beresinister-looking n.c.o.s were occupying the great court of the palace. He found children lying ill of measles in a room without a light. He mentions burning Ids papers and sorting his possessions in view of his proposed departure to England The diary shows how reluctantly he submitted to Kerensky's request only to spend meal times with his family. The ex-monarch expresses his disgust at the soldiers' studied insolence, and records " Our idiots' decison to celebrate May Day with processions and red-flagging." Other entries are in a tone of resignation and sorrow over Russia's dark prospects. Finally ho records joyfully and thankfully on June 19 the news of Brusiloff's succesful offensive on the south-western front. BRITISH SEA DOCS. SCHOONER ROUTS THFSEE U BOATS. LONDON. September 24. (Received September 25, at 8.50 a.m.) A British schooner put up a remans-.iole fight, for hours with a German submarine flotilla. The first submarine attacked at 9 o'clock. 'Hie schooner immediately opened lire, and hit the submarine with the first shot. The enemy submerged. An hour later a second submarine attacked. The schooner hit this submarine twice and drove it otf. Finally a third .submarine appeared at noon. One of the schooner's shots struck the submarine's gun and killed a seaman. The submarine fled. RED CROSS SHOP. On Saturday the shop will be open as usual. A party of ladies not directly connected with any organisation will be in charge. Fresh supplies of all kinds of attractive articles will be on sale, and those who wish to help this most deserving object will find much to tempt them. "SATANS," NOT "BUDDIES." " Satans" is the pet name for Undo Sam's soldiers among tho rank and file of tho German army, according to a letter written by Lieutenant Ranke, who, as "officer war correspondent," writes for German papers stones of individual bravery by Germans, whose names, addresses, and" occupations are given cs "tending to encourage local patriotism.' 1 In a letter to tho ' Naehriehten,' of Dusseldorf, Lieutenant Ranke tells of a skirmish between a patrol from that city with an American patrol, who by their " impudent audacity " liad beorr giving the Germans much trouble. Both patrols were hidden in shell craters, and stalked each other for 19 hours, with the result that three wounded American "-Safaris " were brought- in. For this work their captors all received iron crosses. Bombardier Thomas 11. V. EUiott-, reported wounded on September 23 while in action in France, is a son of the late Air Thomas Elliott, a well-known resident of Auckland, and a brother of Foreman (>. B. Elliott, of tho Dunedin City Fire Brigade. Bombardier Elliott was employed on the railways at Whangarei when lie enlisted with the 25id Reinforcements (artillery section). He spent (several weeks in England, and then went to France, where no was wounded and gashed about nx months ago. After being in hospital in England for some time he returned to France, ami took part in. tho recent heavy fighting in which he received his second wound.