PROPOSED ARMISTICE

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 169, 19 July 1920, Page 5

PROPOSED ARMISTICE

UNWELCOME TO THE POLES

LITHUANIANS OCCUPY VILNA

Aus. and N.Z. Cable Association, (Received July 18, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, July 17

According to messages from Warsaw the Polish disapproval of tho armistice terms accounts for Grabski's withdrawal from the Spa on Wednesday. Opinion in Moscow apparently is divided. Tchitcherin and the other moderates favor acceptance, but. it is 'reported that Trotsky's violent speech at the great gathering won unanimous applause, and the meeting passed a resolution that peace would only be signed when the Reds' entered Moscow.

The Daily Telegraph's correspondent .it Polish headquarters says: "The proposed armistice with the Bolsheviks is not welcpnied by the Polish nation, -.which hardly realises, its danger, but decisive military events are probable t before the armistice can be. concluded. Vilna was evaluated oil the 13th and it is probable:' that the Lithuanians have already occupied the jcjty. Two hundred; thousand fugitives from,the district' are .fleeing, abandoning everything, fearing atrocities such' as the recent* rrturder and mutilation of the Polish Prefect at Dubnouing and his forty-eight "companions. Audacious raids by small; bodies of Russian cavalry through the woods arc the .chief cause of. the Polish defeats,.' but a clever • Polish general could stop the rout." The Morning Post's Warsaw correspondent reports that, the Lithuanians and Poles reached an agreement under which the former occupied Vilna.-i. _ ; It is understood that the Lithuanians have an agreement with the Bolsheviks providing that the former be jeft in undisputed occupation. This' docs net affect the. military situation, and the Bolsheviks are able to continue their operations as if they actually held it. All north-western Poland is now awasli, and a mighty trek into Warsaw is proceeding. The military authorities are efficiently evacuating 100,000 people from Vilna and Minsk, and the countless small villages are emptying themselves. Enormous hordes of people are moving along the highways afoot, carrying'cooking utensils. The hot weather is causing much suffering. It is difficult to foresee what will happen when Warsaw is reached. The city is already overcrowded, and food prices axe prohibitive. It is likely that the parks and open spaces on the shores of the Vistula will be converted into vast refuge eamns. Tho Bolsheviks are coming into possession of a remarkably* rich harvest. Some of the corn is already stacked. The peasants, like tho townspeople, are fleeinc before the Bolshevik terror, without pausing to destroy the harvests.