CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 25 May 1917, Page 5

CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA

Ihe following letter, which appeared the other day in the Chnstchurch Press over the signature of Mr W. J. Williamson, of Sumner, may t>rove interesting and helpful to those of our readers who study more or less closely the cable messages concerning current events in the Old World:—"ln view of the alarmist s cables published in to-day's Press from the Petrograd correspondent of the Morning Post concerning the situation in Russia, will you allow me to quote, for what it is worth, from a private cable I recently received from my sonf Dr. Harold Williams, who is the Petrograd correspondent of the Daily Chronicle and also of the Daily Telegraph. The cable was sent from Petrograd on April 27th, and in it my son says: 'Free Russia immensely encouraging; dawn is coming.' Later events may have tended to moderate that optimism, but I think it quite possible that my son's most recent views iv-ere expressed in a Press cable from London dated May 16th. His cable to me said: 'Self unwell; going for short holiday.' Where he went I don't know, but the Press cable from London referred to spoke of 'a returned Petrograd correspondent,' and it is possible that it is my son who is meant, as he may have chosen England for his holiday. The cable reads: 'A returned Petrograd correspondent says: The Russian internal situation is bad, but not desperate. The military situation was worse before the revolution than to-day. The Army will continue to fight. The Austrians and Germans have too much at stake in the West to permit them to strike a blow on the East front. The Coalition Government may save the situation.'

"Another point is, perhaps, worth mentioning. The correspondent of a paper is not necessarily "in sympathy with that paper's political views. When it 13 remembered, however, that the Morning Post is the paper most in favor with the gilded Conservatives of the Old Country, it will be quite understood that news of a breakdown of a Liberal revolution in Russia would not be altogether disagreeable to most of those who read it."