SWEDISH TROOPS ON FINNISH FRONTIER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVII, Issue LXXVII, 2 January 1918, Page 5

SWEDISH TROOPS ON FINNISH FRONTIER.

PETROGRAD, Dec. 31

Several hundred thousand Bolshevik supporters, including troops, sailors, workmen and women, marched, in, procession through the streets. It was essentially a Bolshevik parade before* the German guests, and a demonstration against the Constituent Assembly. The peasants of Siberia and Ukraine have refused to send corn to Petrograd. The commissaries have decided to abolish military rank, including that of non-coms. The decree removes all distinctions of" uniforms, closes officers' clubs, and levels their pensions to that of the soldiers. . General Karanloff, who was hetman of the Terek Cossacks, his brother, and his whole staff, officers and men, were murdered by soldiers from the Caucasian front. The Bolshevik commissaries have annuled all pensions over three hundred roubles, monthly. * Bessarabia has declared itself a Mbl- ' davian republic, considering itself part of the Russian Federation. The people's commissaries have issued a decree prohibiting bargaining in houses and laud.1 They also intend to nationalise insurance companies. Reports from Southern Siberia indicate that the civil war is rapidly growing. There, were eight days' con-i tinuous fighting at Irkutsk, civilians and Cossacks-opposing the Bolshevik regulars. . Artillery was used mercilessly, whole districts being demolished. Troops in Ukraine are operatingj successfully against the Bolsheviki. COPENHAGEN, Dec. 31. Advices from Haparanda state that the Ukrainian Cossacks heavily defeated the Bolsheviki on the south-western front, taking 400 prisoners arid capturing eight heavy guns and 328 machineguns. The Bolsheviki retreated in disorder.

LONDON, Dec. 31.. The Morning Post's Petrograd correspondent says that Swedish armies are concentrated on the Finnish frontier, and are daily, expected to advance into Finland,' nominally for the defence of Swedish rights, which the Bolshevik troops violated

Chinese troops have been mobilised on the borders of Turkestan, and are preparing to enter Russian territory. The Russian army in Persia is retiring, the Bolsheviki hoping it will be used against the. rear. of Kaledin's "Cossacks and the Ukraine.

The Exchange Telegraph's Peking correspondent states that everyone is delighted at the excellent manner; in which the Chinese military authorities f-re dealing with the situation at Harbin . The Bolsheviki are coming to realise that Harbin doe's not belong to Russia.

Mr Ransome, the Daily News- Petrograd correspondent, interviewed M. Trotsky at the Smolny Institute. He said the German, Government, wiser than most, has thrown aside its grandiose plans of conquest, and accepts a peace in which there is neither a conqueror nor conquered. Mr Ransome adds that the city is more orderly than it has been for months, owing to Bolshevik control. The people do not like the Bolsheviki, but they obey their orders with startling alacrity. The only reason the Assembly has not opened is that gates are necessary for a quorum, arid only 391 have been elected. These include 123 Bolsheviki and 204 Social Revolutionaries, of whom one-half support Lenin and Trotsky. Any attempt to turn out_ the present Government forcibly would only result in anarchy favorable to the Germans. PETROGRAD, Dec. 31. The second Austro-German mission has arrived. It comprises representatives of the Foreign, Commerce, Industry and Finance Ministers. COPENHAGEN, Dec. 31. Fourteen Austrian merchantmen, totalling 40,000 tons, have been released from Russian ports. (Times Service.) PETROGRAD, Dec. 30. Turkestan has formed an autonomous Government. The Cossacks re-elected General Kaledin as hetman. Robbers brutally murdered General Goremykin, his wife and his brother-in-law at his country estate in the Caucasus. i BERNE, Dec. 30. The secretary of the German War Provisioning Bureau, interviewed, admitted it was impossible for Germany to hope to get any appreciable quantity foodstuffs from Russia.