CONDITIONS IN PETROGRAD.

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 85, 12 April 1920, Page 5

CONDITIONS IN PETROGRAD.

FOOD COARSE AND SCARCE

DISAPPEARANCE OF THE

ARISTOCRACY

LONDON, April 10. Sergeant-Major f .T. G. Gray, of Richmond, Melbourne, fonnei.y of the Eighth Battery, has returned from Russia, where he was engaged in the British secret service, mainly in the 'neighborhood of Petrograd, which he left a month ago. He describes Zhe conditions as deplorable. There are practically no factories working. A great majority of men are still under arms. Red women guards armed to the teeth are also constantly patrolling the streets. Even the smallest villages are under close supervision. Despite the appalling sotUajl 'conditions Petrograd is very gay. Trams are running, and there are the usual theatres and dancing saloons filled with vulgar crowds, but the gentlefolk are entirely absent. Aristocrats seem to have almost completely disappeared. A few are occasionally encountered in humble surroundings in remote villages, but the majority .have fled. Many high born Russian ladies have taken refuge in Finland, where they are acting as governesses and clerks. It is impossible to estimate the extent of the anti-Bolshevik feeling iv Russia. The people appear to he afraid to express opinions, but the open violence and outrages, of which Sergean-Major Gray saw many evidences and heard dreadful stories, S)pear less prevalent than formerly, c wore a peasant's dress and escaped detection. His carefully manicured nails once aroused suspicion, but .his sound knowledge of, the Russian language put the Bolsheviks off the scent.

Sergeant-Major Gray, with other members of the party, on completion of their mission returned to Finland across the frozen Finland Gu.lf on skis, and encountered a violent blizzard. The temperature was 42 degrees below aero. While skiing on Lake Ladoga he lost his direction' for eleven hours, finally reaching a village in a state'of col-, lapse. His condition remained seriout for over a fortnight, even after his 'arrival in England via Helsingi'orsi at the end of March.

Gray saw service abroad, and after the Armistice was on the roll 'of an Australian boat 'when 'ho decided to .join the British' lake flotilla proceed:ng to Lake Onega: ' The flotilla consisted of six 35-iY:et n.otor-boats and four 40-feet. ' Gray's boat was manned by foiir Australians, two South Africans, and a New Zea-s lander. The crew exchanged :« ; bottle of for ar1. Austraiian ensign. .They succeeded.in capturing ' the : first Bolshevik steamer Azod. They hauled i down the Bolshevik Red Flag,, hoisting the Australian ensign. . ' . ; : On one occasion the so-calkjd Aus,sie boat back-fired, puttin'ac liei^ out•. of action..' /yhe. vessel, drifted all iijght loij:g,Cahd ivas: : posted as mif> ,ing,- biit jlater .wqs discovered by;, aeroplane.,; .She succeeded, m returning Under her own power. , : ■ . Sergt.-Hajor vGray. '-.after1 thi'ei' months on Lake -.Onega, returned io ,Kngland via Miu-mansk, Wheh the1 'JJri^isli. Qvaicuatipj' of liußsia was undertaken Gray' arranged for his immedia.po, aepatriation ~ to. Australia,. and was proceeding aboard iJae,boat —his luggage, being already '■ aboard —when, m response to! a telegram, he joined the Russian secret service mission.