RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17665, 18 December 1917, Page 5

RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

INTERNAL SITUATION.

MEETING OF CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY.

A. and N.Z. Cable Association and Renter.

LONDON, December 16

The "Daily Chronicle's" Petrograd correspondent reports that twenty Social Revolutionary delegates, finding soldiers prohibiting entrance to the debating chamber of tho Constituent Assembly, held a meeting in the library, when an officer ordered, them out, declaring that all meetings were illegal. The Assembly was allowed to but when the delegates refused to go, sailors, armed x with bayonets and cutlasses, removed them.

The Bolsheviks have concentrated 8000 troops in the vicinity of the Taurida Palace.

RED GUARDS SEIZE PALACE. PETROGRAD, December 16 The Red Guards havo soized tho Taurida Palace, preventing deputies and officials from entering.

BOLSHEVIKS' DECREES. " The Times " Service. PETROGRAD, December 16. The Bolsheviks have decreed the abolition of all military titles and decorations, the confiscation of the savings banks and private capital, the disestablishment of the church, and the abolition of the Holy Synod.

UKRAINIANS DEFEAT MAXIMALISTS. s Reutor's Telegrams. (Received December 17, 11.55 p.m.) PETROGRAD, December 17. A telegram from Nicolaiev states that Maximalist troops at Odessa attacked the Ukrainian Parliament, butUkrainian troops drove off the Maximalists. The majority of tho sailors of tho Black Sea fleet have joined the Ukrainians.

THE CZAR'S ESCAPE.

(Received December 17, 10.35 p.m.) LONDON, December 17.

The "Daily Chronicle's" Petrograd correspondent says that tho Czar's escape is probable. Tho Bolshevik Government has dispatched five hundred sailors to Chelyabinsk, in Siberia, for the purpose of preventing the Czar from joining General' Daitov, commanding the anti-Bolshevik troops in Orenburg.

Router's Telegrams.

(Received December 17, 11.55 p.m.) PETROGRAD, December 17. The report of the escape of the exCzar is officially denied.

THE DEPOSED ROMANOVS Rcutcr'a Tolesrama.

PETROGRAD, December 16. A meeting of the Ismailovsky and Petrogradsky regiments resolved on the immediate removal of the ox-Czar, with Alix and family, to Kronstadt or the fortress of Peter and Paul, and the cancellation of all privileges. While tho meeting was in progress, a report was circulated that the ex-Czar had escaped, but tho report is unconfirmed.

THE ARMISTICE

PEACE NEGOTIATIONS BEGIN. A and N.Z. Cable Association and Keuter. (Received December 17, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, December 16. A. wireless German official message savs: — The armistice signed at Brest Litovsk yesterday begins on December 17, and ends on'January 14. Unless a week's notico is given tihe armistice continues automatically. It extends to all land,

air and naval forces of tho common fronts. Peace negotiation* will begin immediately.

A wireless Russian official message says;—Ensign Krylonko has issued a proclamation stating that the armistice treaty lias been signed and that he proposes to cease all military operations until the full text has been reecivtd.

GERMAN LEADER'S DICTUM. AMSTERDAM, December 16

Herr Stresemann, tho National Liberal leader, iu a speech, referring to tho negotiations with Russia, said tlyit Germany should conduct these as a military conqueror. Now that Russia was dissolving into separate parts, tho question of Russia's integrity could not bo raised. Old Russia was gono, and Germany was entitled to harvest the rewards of her conquests.