CHAOTIC RUSSIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17430, 26 September 1918, Page 4

CHAOTIC RUSSIA.

There is no sign of improvement in the internal conditions of Russia. The unhappy population is being forced to drink deeply of the bitter draught which the Bolshevists have succeeded in brewing. The reports that the influence of Bolshevism is declining may be well founded, but if it is so it is apparent that Bolshevism is fighting the more savagely for survival and is determined to die hard. It is no doubt the case, as a London message states, that an almost impenetrable veil hides the chaos in Russia from the rest of Europe. But now and again the veil is lifted sufficiently to afford glimpses of what is occurring behind it. The scenes which are revealed are of terrible import. The worst predictions of the ultimate results of Bolshevism are being fulfilled. There is only too much evidence that Russia is in the grip of anarchy, accompanied by all .the usual symptoms—murder, incendiarism, riot, and infamy of all descriptions. It is said that the murders at Petrograd approximate five hundred daily. From other parts come similar stories, especially from Moscow, from which city radiate the brutal activities of an Extraordinary Commission against the counter-revolution. The fell disease from which Russia is suffering is running its course with increasing virulence. Anarchy and blood-lust have ever gone hand in hand. Life is very cheap in Russia at the present time. Foreigners are, with the exception of the Germans, receiving the worst of treatment. Refugees arriving in Sweden tell a tale which varies little in the salient features. The hoped-for signs of the appearance of some stabilising element are still deferred, and tho sufferings of the Russian population threaten to provide in the coming winter a still more awful feature of the situation, if there be truth in the assertion that millions of the people, workless and foodless, must inevitably be faced with starvation in tho months that are ahead. Why, it will be asked, do the Russian people not arise and sweep away this regime of terror and destruction? There is no very satisfactory answer. The forces of disorganisation and the weapons of fear are still controlled by the Bolshevists. The elements which made tho Reign of Terror possible in France are, more than a century later,- holding carnival in Russia. The whiff of grape-shot which ended the Terror in France may be the only kind of remedy that will help Russia to-day; but, though wo may be sure that the reckoning is coming, it is impossible to foresee how long it may yet be postponed. The United States Government

decided within the past few days to ap-1

proach the Entente and nentral Governments with a view to taking steps to indicate the world's disapproval of Bolshevist outrages. The Russian anarchists will, however, care little for the world's censure unless it be expressed in some drastic manner, such as will promise the liberation of the Russian people from the thraldom of the present tyranny.