Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1920. THE RUSSIAN PROBLEM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1721, 23 January 1920, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1920. THE RUSSIAN PROBLEM.

The conflicting reports received concerning Russia and its Soviet Government leave ns very much in the dark concerning the happenings in the murdered Czar’s late Empire. That the overthrow of the Revolutionary Government, headed by Prince Lvoff, and subsequently by M. Kerensky, and the latter’s deposition by the Bolshevist leaders, Lenin and Trotsky, was followed by a Reign of Terror in Russia, far surpassing in its horrors the great French Revolution of the Eighteenth Century, appears to have been generally acknowledged. The Bolshevik leaders have not, however, been without their apologists, and there has been an extraordinary conflict of evidence concerning their actual doings. The American Ambassador, Mr Francis, from personal experience, of Russia under the Bolshevik regime, giving evidence before the United Stales Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, presented a very dark picture of the atrocious happenings' characterising Bolshevik rule, and of the terrible hardships and sufferings inflicted upon the people, and more particularly upon the so-called bourgeoisie. Mr W. C. Bullitt, another American who was sent to Russia by President Wilson' to report on the conditions there," and to get into touch with Lenin, and who arrived in Russia in May, 1919, took a wholly different view of the position. In his report, which was only/ made public when he gave evidence before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr Bullitt attributed most of the suffering and trouble in Russia to the blockade maintained by the Allies, and to the support given by the latter to the anti-Bolshevik leaders, Koltchak, Deniken and Yudenitch. But Mr Bullitt apparently saw things only through Lenin’s eyes, and we may' be sure that the Bolshevik leader glossed over the more . terrible happenings of the six or seven months prior to the former’s arrival in Russia, and made the most of the economic distress arising out of the blockade. But the statements made by Ambassador Francis remained unshaken by Mr Bullitt’s evidence, and have received ample corroboration since from men like Colonel John Ward, the “Navvies’ M.P.,” Dr. Harold Williams, the special correspondent of the London Daily News, and his brother, Mr Aubrey Williams, who has been lecturing here during the last few days. Each and all of these gentlemen, from personal experience of its terrors, recognise the terrible menace Bolshevism has become to tlie world, and speak with bated breath of the ferocious deeds that have characterised Soviet rule, the success of which was only made possible by terrorist and autocratic rule, .and by the extraordinary propaganda work carried on by its leaders. The printing press (so we are told) proved an even more effective fighting force for the Bolsheviks than their armies, although now that the opposition has been so largely stamped out, the Soviet army, numbering between 1,000,000 and 1,200,000 troops of the line, constitutes a really formidable force, and one that needs to be reckoned with. By their propaganda work the Bolsheviks have outworn the morale of the anti-Bplshcvist forces, and contributed in no small measure to their defeat of the All Russia leaders.