THE SACKING OF ODESSA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14041, 26 April 1920, Page 7

THE SACKING OF ODESSA.

1 (By Perceval Laudou.) The story of the recapture and sack of Odessa is one of the most terrible chapters in the history of Bolshevism. Apart from the horrors of tho massacre of thousands in the great city, apart, too, from the display on an enormous scale of the utter disorganisation and collapse of the left wing of General Denikin's army, the incident is one that cannot fail to bring hometo all the conviction that so complete and overwhelming a triumph for Bolshevism in its worst and most brutally wanton form changes the whole aspect of the problem of the Near East. Jl is. no longer merely a matter of difficulty and delicacy; it has become one of gravest emergency. No settlement of the Turkish question can now pretend to be honest which docs not provide for dangers which, a month ago. seemed to most people far-sighted, improbable, and almost impossible. " In outline the story of the past seven days, as told to me to-day by an eyewitness just returned from "the unhappy city, is as simple as it is significant. . Odessa was taken, not as an operation of war by the advance of the Red army, but by an unprovoked l rising of the dregs of the population. These armed looters and murderers knew with whom they had to dealknew that the spirit of the Volunteer forces in the city was utterly broken. The insurrection could have been, end rd by resolute action in a few hours; Hie insurgents knew that resolute action was the last thing of which the military ofliccrs of the Volunteer army were capable. It may seem incredible, but it is actually true, that so enormous have been the losses—chiefly from typhus--among the rank and "file of the Volunteer army, and so continuoits the .stream of unrequired officers into the one city of luxurv behind Denikin's line, that some 20.000 of the latter were present when the havoc began in Odessa last Thursday, fn nil that number not even a handful was found ti> organise the defence, either of the wretched inhabitants or of themselves. Tin- general in command. .Schilling, was among the fir>t to lea v.- the citv. The remainder of the officers ioolied on helplessly as the looting of the defenccles< city went on all day and all night, and the so-called fighting, which was nothing el.-e than cold-blooded murder, made the streets re-echo. It is rumored that large numbers of these officers of the Volunteer army paid for their lack of initiative with their lives. It is obvious that the insurgents had no wish or even abilitv to keep prisoners. A T'kr.ininn detachment. which v.athe only force in the town that preserved a semblance of discipline, started to fight its \\:iy out towards the Bessanibiaii frontier, and has almost certainly succeeded in doing so. for il is report.fl that the Roumanian Staff has taken steps to close the borders against the imminent menace of Bolshevism.

-All this time the quays were becoming more and mure crowded bv neverending streams of miserable inhabitants, pitifully demanding help from the British warships, the Ceres. Sportive, and Ajas. whose behavior throughout in rescuing refugees was beyond praise. Our seamen requisitioned at once every' ship that was in the harbor and manned an ice-breaker, without which it is probable that not a man or woman would have escaped. In all. about 12.000 were taken on board, and this was all that could be done. The ships steamed awav leaving many times that number crowding the quays and being shot down bv tbe Maxims of the Bolsheviks. In all this miserable welter of inefficiency and panic one or two instances stand out worthy of record. When it was found that not a platoon of professional soldiers would undertake the defence of the quays, a cadet of bows from ten and upwards did so. in spite of continual casualties in their ranks, which were scarcely taller than the rifle* thev carried. Englishmen will bo glad to hear that all these hovs were rescued by the British. Another gallant action was the cutting out from the ice and the canning away of two nearlv finished Russian torpedo boats. It should be remembered that the arsenals and workshops in which they were made have now fallen into Bolshevik hands, and constitute a jwrnianent menace to the Allies* activity and control. Odessa, a city of half a million inhabitants and refugees, has now fallen into the hands of the Red army, of which the cavalry entered the place on Monday after a forced march from the Perekop and NicolaicfF section. This is a_mere sketch of the. events at Odessa during the last seven days: of their anguish and suffering no picture can be drawn. Nothing can undo the past, butthe wretched affair has at least served some purpose if thereby Western Europe is made to realise that only Inaction—strong action, immediate'and. steadily continued till the end is achieved—can the safety of the Near East- be guaranteed. The capture of Odessa by the Red Army forces the attention of the Allies .with dramatic intensity and suddenness to the changes thereby created in the complexion of the Turkish problems—changes that must weigh heavily with the Supreme Council. The position in the Black Sea and the international guarantee of the Straits will Ik? seriously affected by the Red army's occupation of even a small port on the Euxine seaboard.. From the Bolsheviks no attempt at naval activity is, of course, to be feared, but the mere release of floating mines from any point will create a position of great difficulty, for the Straits are" merely the lower reaches of the Danube, Dniester, the Dnieper, and the Don. Through the Bosphorus a continual current, averaging three miles an hour, drains away a huge volume of waters from these rivers past Constantinople into the Mediterranean. The position in Odessa, in the bay round wliich the. Dnieper sweeps into the Black Sea, combined with the presence of German officers fully aware of the opportunity thus afforded, and capable of organising the necessary factories, gravely complicates the military situation.

The moral effect of the recapture of Odessa is likely to have an unfortunate repercussion in the Caucasus, where Bolshevik sympathies have been displaved latelv in the rear of Denikin's line. In particular, recent news has arrived of the murder by Bolsheviks of Russian officers at Gelenjik, a town across the bay from the Allied quarters at Xcvorossisk, and only twenty miles distant. -The matter was tiuickly settled bv the arrival of British gunboats escorting White troops, but the advance of Bolshevik tendencies is unquestionable, and military activity in the newly-recognised Republics at Georgia and Azerbaijan is now a matter of immediate necessity.