RUSSIA’S FOREIGN LEGION

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 November 1926, Page 5

RUSSIA’S FOREIGN LEGION

BRIBES TO BRITISH OFFICERS.

LARGE SALARIES OFFERED.

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.! (By Cable —Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, November 28. The “Dispatch” states that the Soviet is secretly offering salaries of £lOOO to £l5OO yearly, and other inducements to unemployed discontented British ex-officers, principally, gunnery, aviation and gas experts, to join the Red Army’s headquarters at Mos- I cow, where a sort of Foreign Legion I based’ on a recruiting campaign, is | conducted, quite apart from the activ-' ities of the Soviet missions abroad. This is doubtless the outcome of the decree signed by Trotsky’s deputy, Skiliansky, ordering the agents to encourage the enlistment of foreign nationals by evefy means in their power. The result has bet’ll whispered approaches to ex-officers iii the drawing rooms of Mayfair, and hotels of Chelsea and the coffee houses of Soho.

One ex-Regular officer informed the “pispatch”: ‘‘The Soviet agent aware that I have been an outspoken critic of the War Office, and also an author of confidential memorandum on gunnery instruction, intimated that I would be paid a substantial sum in Paris, where a contract would be signed for the purpose of evading the Foreign Enlistment Act. Two essentials were to speak French and be unmarried.”

The “Dispatch” learns that a hundred Englishmen are serving in Russia, but the pay does not exceed £4OO yearly.' They are liable to all kinds of unpleasantness if they return to Britain. One of the Soviet’s most prominent air experts is an Englishman. The Soviet is principally using British and Italian aircraft, but chemical warfare is chiefly in the hands of Germans. The Soviet badly needs a staff of officers, the Czarist school having been almost entirely wiped out. THE PEASANTRY REVOLT. PARIS, November 27. Six towns and twenty-five villages are in revolt against the Soviet administration at Pskov. According to “Intransigeant,” the revolt is led by Russian officers from Esthonia. , It reports that 150,000 peasants have taken the field and have engaged the Red troops. Manifestos have been circulated in the name of the Grand Duke Nicholas, announcing the pending liberation of the peasants from the Bolshevik yoke. MOSCOW’S PROSPERITY. LONDON, November 27. Writing from Moscow, the Daily Express special correspondent says that remarkable changes have occurred during the two , years since his last' visit, when 30 per cent.| of the shops had their shutters up. To-day there are no unoccupied sites in the business centre. Milliners offer the latest Paris creations. The State ■vine shops stock the pre-war Scotch best vintages and champagnes. There is considerable luxury, in clothing Prices are high, a tailor-made English cloth costing £5O. There seems to be an abundant supply of ordinary comestibles, reasonably priced. Hundreds of motor cars have reappeared, and entertainments are numerous. KRASSIN’iTfUNERAL. LONDON, November 26. In a coffin resting on a. red pall, surrounded by four black-robed, red-rib-boned guards of honour, two men and two girls, the body of M. Krassin lay in. state in the Reception Hall, which was draped in black and red at Chesham House, the headquarters of the Soviet Embassy.

The funeral was made the occasion of an imposing Communist demonstration to Golders Green Cemetery. Five thousand formed the procession, wearing red favours. The service at the crematorium comprised Eulogia music. The ashes were taken to the Embassy, for burial .tncler the walls of the Kremlin. Thirty motors left the Soviet Embassy for Golders Green, the chief mourners riding in a magnificent Rolls-Royce with a red-flagged bonnet. The coffin was covered with a red pall.