RUSSIA'S PROBLEMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17430, 26 September 1918, Page 5

RUSSIA'S PROBLEMS

IN THE DEPTHS OF AN AH. CITY. INCENDIARISM, MURDER, AND INFAMY." Australian and N.Z. Cable Association, LONDON, September 24. An almost impenetrable veil hides the chaos in Russia from the rest of Europe. The only news available comes fragmentary and intermittently from the Allies' official agents and from occasional refugees who reach Scandinavia, after abandoning their belongings and bribing their way into security. This gives few details of the dreadful horrors being enacted; but enough is known to show that Russia is sunk in the depths of anarchy, in which incendiarism, murder, and infamy of all descriptions are running mad riot. t Reliable accounts estimate that the murders in Petrograd alone reach SOC. daily. There is no sign of the appearance of any stabilising element, .and there is the terrible prospect of anarchy and disorders already far exceeding the worst horrors of the French or any other revolutions proceeding unchecked. It is estimated in Paris that seven million Russians are doomed irretrievably to starvation during the coming winter, during which period the absolute breakdown of the distribution of coal and firewood promises to be only one of the lesser evils. Copenhagen reports state that Petrograd is subsisting mostly upon rats, dogs, and mice. This may be an exaggeration, but no doubt unbelievable horrors are bein" suffered and perpetrated by the workless" foodless population. The British are striving to secure the release of'their Nationals, including Sir Robert Lockhart. MORE RUTHLESS SLAUGHTER. ALLIED CONSULS-GENERAL ARRESTED. September 24. The State Department has received confirmation of the appalling conditions in Russia. There is ruthless slaughter of officers and leading citizens, who are shot in cellars at night with gun s muffled bv silencers. The French and British Consulsgeneral at Moscow have been arrested. THE EX-CZAR'S LAST HOURS. TOUCHING EXTRACTS FROM DIARY. Router's Telegrams. LONDON, September 24. An interesting picture of the late Czar's life after his abdication is gleaned from fairly full extracts from his diary, published in the Bolshevist newspapers. These extracts record his sorrowful arrival at Tsarkoy Selo in 1917, where sinisterlooking non-commissioned officers were occupying the great court of the palace. He found children lying ill of measles in a room without a light. He mentions burning his papers' and sorting his possessions in view of his proposed departure to England. The diary shows how reluctantly he submitted to Kerensky's request to spend only meal times with his family. The ex-monarch expresses liis disgust at the soldiers' studied insolence, and records " Our idiots' decision to celebrate May Day with processions and red-flagging. 5 ' Other entries are' in a tone of resignation and sorrow over Russia's dark prospects. Finally he records joyfully and thankfully on June 19 the news of Brussiloff's successful offensive on the south-western front. STARVATION IN MOSCOW. BOLSHEVIST MESSAGE MINIMISES THE SITUATION. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, September 24. (Received Sept. 25, at 7.25 p.m.) A Moscow message states that 1800 journalists are starving in the city, and hundreds of famishing people are committing suicide daily. ' A later Bolshevist wireless message states: The food situation at Moscow Is improving, 29? wagons having arrived in two days. ANTI-BOLSHEVIST MOVEMENT. LONDON, September 24. (Received Sept. 25, at 7.25 p.m.) A Vladivostock report states that M. Avrsentieff presided over a conference of members of the Constituent Assembly which decided to follow General Garda's army and form a United Government purged of Bolshevists. This has been accepted by the Siberian Duma and the Om6k and Samara Governments.