PETROGRAD BECOMING A DESERTED CITY OF GLOOM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16798, 14 March 1918, Page 5

PETROGRAD BECOMING A DESERTED CITY OF GLOOM.

EXODUS CONTINUES BY ALL AVAILABLE MEANS. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON. Mar. 12. The Pctrograd correspondent of the Daily Chronicle states that the Ministers have nearly all gone to Moscow. The population is flocking from the capital. Queues of thousands are waiting for permits to leave, and overcrowded trains are departing all day long. Other people are using sledges, while many are trudging through the snow. Everything is quiet and the city is becoming a desert. The trams, are running with difficulty owing to the coal shortage. Factories are closing, and cabs disappearing, most of the owners having sold their horses for meat. Underfed horses are dying in the streets daily. The theatres are mostly empty. Motor lorries have been commandeered for the evacuation. There is no panic and no excitement, but widespread gloom has taken their place. Meanwhile Petrograd knows little of the outside world, and even Russian news is hard to obtain. Tjnjos. ' PETROGRAD. Mar. 12. The Bolsheviks have decided to adopt the title of the Russian Communistic party and to extend their policy, to an international basis.