RUSSIAN CHAOS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17191, 19 December 1917, Page 5

RUSSIAN CHAOS

CONDITIONS INTOLERABLE.

FAMINE APPROACHING

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. NEW YORK, December 17. The United Press correspondent at Tokio states that conditions in Russia are bocoming intolerable. There is increasing evidence that a famine is approaching.

A SIGNIFICANT SIGN.

AMERICANS ADVISED TO LEAVE.

NEW YORK, December 17. Mr Francis, the United States Ambassador at Petrograd, has advised all Americans to leave the capital. One hundred and sixty-seven Americans are now awaiting a passage ,via the Siberian railway.

DEATH OF GENERAL SKALON.

MURDER OR SUICIDE?

PETROGRAD, December 17. The violent death of General Skalon, the Russian army's representative at the peace negotiations, has aroused a sensation. The Leninist members of the conference state that General Skalon committed suicide, but it is generally believed that he was murdered for having refused to be identified with a disgraceful peace. OFFICERS DISMISSED AND DEGRADED. FORCED TO' CLEAN STABLES, LONDON, December 17. The Daily Chronicle's Petrograd correspondent reports that a Leninist decree ordering the abolition of officers came into force on the lRh inst. Practically all the officers were degraded, and many of them assaulted. Medals and epaulettes were torn off, and the officers were subjected to every insult, and German spies encouraged the soldiers. Colonels were forced to exchange work with their own orderlies, and other officers were forced to clean stables. Every' day brings more outrages and confiscations by the Leninists. The contente of 700 wine vaults at PetrogTad were destroyed. These were valued at a million roubles. Pools of wine were formed in some streets, and people baled the wine into anything handy. '

CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. , LONDON, December 17. News Petrograd correspondent says that latest returns of the Assembly election show, that 148 Social Revolutionaries and 78 Bolsheviks have been elected. VARIOUS RUMOURS. PETROGRAD, December 17. It is reported that General Korniloff has been, wounded in a fight with the Bolshevik troops near Potshieff. There is no confirmation of the reported arrest of General Kaledin. ■•• '• TOEIO, December 17. The reported landing .of Japanese troops at Vladivostock is denied. EXTENSION OF CIVIL WAB 'A BOLSHEVIK REVERSE. PETROGRAD, December 17. (Received Dec. ( 18, at 8.50 p.m.) There was fighting yesterday at Odessa between Ukraine and Bolshevik regiments, in which the latter were defeated. News from the south and Siberia indicates the extension of the civil war. The Petrograd banks have closet}.

DISORDER AT HARBIN

CHINESE TROOPS TO BE EMPLOYED,

FORCE NOW EN ROUTE.

Reuter'a Telegrams. LONDON, December 17. (Received Dec. 19, at 0.35 a.mi) Reuter's Agency learns from Japanese sources that Harbin, the population of which is largely Jewish, is entirely under the Bolsheviks' control, and great disorder prevails.' Brigands attacked the premises of important Japanese and other firms. The allied Ministers at -Peking decided to entrust the preservation of order to Chinese troops, who are already en route.