RUSSIA'S PROBLEMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17504, 21 December 1918, Page 7

RUSSIA'S PROBLEMS

BRITISH FLEET AT REYAL.

BOLSHEYIST PLANS UPSET.

STOCKHOLM, December 18. Tho action of tho British fleet at Reval has greatly upset Bolshevist circles in Petrograd, which were eecretly preparing for the evacuation of Petrograd and Moscow, and moving tho capital to Novgorod. Tho British fleet is expected shortly at Holsmgfors.—A. and N.Z. and Reuter.

ALLIED INTERFERENCE.

ITS NECESSITY AND RESULTS.

STATEMENT BY LORD MILNER.

LONDON, December 18. The Press Bureau announces that Lord Miluer, member of the War Cabinet, replying to a correspondent, States: " Allied forces, of whom British troops form only a small proportion, were sent to Russia because the Bolshevists were assists mg our enemies in every possible way. Tie Bolshevists' action released hundreds of thousands of Germans for the west front, and caused Rumania to fall into German hands. The Bolshevists handed over the Russian Black Sea fleet to the Germans, and treacherously attacked the Czecho-Slovaks, who were endeavouring to leave Russia to fight for their own country's freedom.

' Furthermore, it is necessary to protect tho vast quantity of Allies' military stores at Archangel and Vladivostock." Lord Milner further said that-'the Allied continued intervention had proved successful. The Czecho-Slovaks were saved, the resources of Siberia and South-eastern Russia were denied the enemy, and the northern ports of European Russia had been prevented from becoming German submarine bases from which our North Sea barrage could be turned. These were important achievements, and contributed materially to the Germans' defeat. In the course oi the Allied interven"on thousands of Russians had fought on the side of tho Allies, and it would be an abominable to leavo them to tho tender mercies of their and our enemies because our own immediate purposes had been served. The Government did not desire to leave British troops in Russia a day longer than was necessary to die&harge their moral obligations, which he also believed to be the guiding principle of all the Allies.

Personally he (Lord Milner) thought that the time -was not necessarily distant 'when a _ withdrawal would be possible without disastrous consequences. If the Allies scrambled out of Russia immediately, that barbarism which now reigned only in part of the country would almost certainly spread over the whole. The ultimate consequences of such a disaster were not foreseeable, but assuredly they would involve a far greater strain'on the British Empire's resources than its present commitments.—A. and N.Z. and Reuter.

POLAND AND GERMANY.

Diplomatic relations severed,

COPENHAGEN, December 19. (Received Dec. 21, at 0.10 a.m.) The Secretariat of Poland has severed diplomatic relations with Germany, on the ground that Germans planned a revolution ill Poland with the aid of Russian Maximalists.—A. and N.Z. Cable.

NORTHERN RUSSIAN ARMY,

GENERAL MILLER TO TAKE COM

MAND.

LONDON, December 19. (Received Dec. 21, at 1 a.m.) General Miller, a Russian Genera], and formerly the commantier of an army corps in Bukovina, has left London for Archangel to take command of the Russian •army now being formed in Northern Russia.—A. and N.Z. Cable.

BOLSHEVIST TERRORISM.

STARVATION AND MASSACRE.

A DRAMATIC ACCOUNT.

LONDON, December 19. (Received Dec. 21, at 1 a.m.) The correspondent of the Daily Chronicle calls, attention to the situation in Russia, which is causing great anxiety in official circles in Britain. Little recent news is available, but massacres of all classes except Bolshevists are frequent. Large numbers of people have been arrested, and the prisons are crowded under appalling conditions, _ the prisoners having no medical attention, while sanitation is non-existent.

It is officially admitted' that during the general massacres of the bourgeoisie on September 6 512 people were killed, but probably many more perished. The people are compelled to adhere to the Bolshevist regime or starve. Thousands of officers axe serving- in the Bolshevist army as an alternative to starvation.

The story of a Bolshevist army of 3,000,000 is discredited, but there is a probability of an attempt to increase the force with a view to an invasion of other parts of Europe in order to spread Bolshevist principles and constituting a danger comparable with the invasions of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane.—A. and N.Z, Cable. CRITICAL SITUATION IN ESTHONIA. BOLSHEVISTS AND CHINESE PLUNDERING. * LONDON, December 19. (Received Dec. 21. at 1.20 aon.) The situation in Esthonia is declared to be critical.

Russian Bolshevists are following the German withdrawal, plundering as they advance. These marauders are followed by a crowd of Chinese armed with knives and axes who entered Russia in 1916 and now follow the Bolshevist armies everywhere.

The only hope for the inhabitants appears to spring from the presence of a British squadron at Reval, where the local Bolshevists are very active in arms and ammunition from German soldiers. The Germans are spreading reports that the British are coming to take possession of the Baltic Provinces, whereas the residents are reported as regarding, the British as their saviours from anarchy.—A. and N.Z. Cable.