ARMY OF MURDERERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17130, 8 April 1919, Page 9

ARMY OF MURDERERS.

THE BOLSHEVIK FORCE.

DISCIPLINE BY FEAR.

TROTZKYS GUIDING HAND.

PARIS. March 27.

The Bri'ish Intelligence Department has second a striking report of iheßolihevk military strength. As rhii.-man of the Supreme Military Council Trotzky is Army Dictator, and a Lettish soldier, Yahcetis, is charged with the conduct of field operations.

Several of the former Tsar's generals, including Cheraraisoff and Parsky, have Bolshevik commands, but by far the most important m.litary man is Trotzky. With out Trotzky the Red Army would not have been organised, and his death would mean the downfall of the Bolshevik regime. His mthl.63 cruelty and lust for oloodfhed are vividly illustrated by innumerable tales current among the people. 'the Bolshevik general staff comprises adventurers and spies, with a few convinced Bolsheviks.

Trvtzky is endeavouring to mobilise all the pedants between the ages of 16 and 50. He has a mill on men now, and expects to have 3,000,000 ready by the sp.ing of 1919. This is probable, but lack of rifles ami munitions will prevent their use as an army. Desertion is rifa A regiment recently left Petrograd 1200 strong and arrived on the Finnish front with 500 men. Great peasant, revolts, with butcheries, have occurred. The peasants and educated classes are drawing closer together every- ! where.

Without the Chinese regiments formed from Chinese labourers', brought to CSfc front under Tsarism, tho regiments, and exiled Livonians, tlfe Soviets would collapse. There regiments remorselessly slaughter the'mutinying battalions, and so Trotzky maintains sevure discipline. Recently 2000 bourgeois, mostly former officers, were condemned to death. The troops refused to shoot, but tho Chinese and Letts executed the condemned men, and then shot every fifth man among the other troops. Trotzky's system is to inspire dread and pay well. The soldier gets £90 a month, and much more food than tho oivilian.

Cavalry and artillery are weak, and there are no heavy guns. The whole army is still in a stage of organisation, but' events in Volhynia and the antiBolsheviks' evacuation of Odessa, where the Reds are within a few miles of tho citv, show the seriousness of the possibilities.