ATROCITIES COMMITTED IN PETROGRAD FIGHTING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16697, 15 November 1917, Page 5

ATROCITIES COMMITTED IN PETROGRAD FIGHTING.

NEITHER SIDE STRONG ENOUGH TO PREDOMINATE.

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, Nov. 13. The Daily Chronicle's Petrograd correspondent, summarising the position on Monday, says that the Provisional Government lacks sufficient forces to maintain office, and the Bolsheviki lack sufficient to exert authority. Both sides are awaiting reinforcements. The Bolsheviki on Sunday besieged and captured four military training schools and the telephone exchange. The Bolsheviki previously armed thousands of young undisciplined factory workers, forming the so-called Red Guards, capable of any atrocities. They massacred batches of captured cadets with the utmost brutality. Three cadets were trampled to death during the battle at the Telephone Exchange, the bodies being left in the street. The crowds capturing $>ne of the schools where the defenders had used all their ammunition, shouted, " Chop them up." Frenzied sailors tore cadets to pieces.

Rifle fire is heard everywhere in the city. An armoured car containing an inexperienced Bolsheviki crew plunged headlong into the river. Field guns were used against the cadets defending one school for seven hours. When a larger gun broke the walls the survivors narrowly escaped lynching. Many were thrown into the river. Eight hundred casualties occurred on Sunday. The situation is becoming worse. Street fighting will inevitably increase. M. Kerensky with his troops and artillery is reported to have reached the outskirts of the city, while additional Kerensky troops are reported upon the Finland railway; thus troops are approaching on the capital from two sides. A Stockholm message states that M. Kerensky's proclamation was issued at Gatchina, where the Bolsheviki engaged in a battle with his troops from the front; great bloodshed ending in the defeat of the Bolsheviki. Russian troops on the west front have sent a message of loyalty to M. Kerensky.