SITUATION IN RUSSIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3313, 12 September 1917, Page 15

SITUATION IN RUSSIA.

The food crisis in Russia is serious. The Only bread in reserve will last for three days. Soldiers and civilians are suffering privations. The main cause is the peasants' refusal to supply owing to inability to obtain iron, paraffin, salt, and cotton goods In exchange for grain. The Government is unable to meet the peasants' demands owing to the shortage of fuel and means of transport. There are similar difficulties in Finland, where the Government has decided to make requisitions if the peasants persist in their attitude. The Bourse Gazette .states that the Minister for Food Supply has resigned, owing to the difficulties of the food problems.

The decision to abandon Riga has been received with the gravest concern by the Anglo-Russian community. It is hoped that the danger to Petrograd will yet unite all parties in Petrograd. A third of all the armies represented at the Moscow Congress recommends the appointment of military commissioners to Lhe headquarters at every front in order to raise the fighting spirit and secure democratic reorganisation ; also the appointment under the War Minister's presidency of a military council for the purpose of enlightening and interesting the whole army at' the front and rear ;

The Government is placing the military district of Petrograd entirely in General Korniloff's hands. It has appointed a special Administrative Committee invested with full powers to deal with all urgent matters, and to be superior to all civil authorities. The committee will devote its attention to the establishment of order and the suppression of any counter-revolu-tionary agitation. The Socialist newspapers are now urging the whole nation to maintain the ..defence of the country. The workers' organs strenuously appeal to their supporters to rally and work their harc'lest and loyally to submit to orders, to save the country and safeguard the revolution. A Russian semi-official message states that the Central Committee of the Council of Workmen and Soldiers' Delegates has passed a resolution asserting that the removal v of internal danger is a vital question in every country and every democracy, and urging the soldiers to redouble their efforts in order to increase the army's combative activity and secure the regeneration of the economic life and the reorganisation of national defence. The committee appealed to all the Russian democratic forces to support the Provisional Government. The Russian Provisional Government has adopted stringent press regulations. M. Kerensky has prohibited the Maximalist and two counter-revolutionary papers from publishing, and the military censor has decided that papers shall publish only official war telegrams. The Ekstrabladet states that private Petrograd advices convey the information that a counter-revolution movement has spread throughout Russia, and is increasing daily. General Korniloff's demand for the dissolution of all the Soldiers' Committees has caused excitement. Certain members of the Council of the Workmen and Soldiers' Delegates are trying to utilise the fall of Riga to force on the resignation of General Korniloff, but the officials declare that his resignation is impossible. The Daily Chronicle's Petrograd correspondent states that the Council of Workmen and Soldiers' Delegates discussed the Moscow decision in favour of the death penalty. M. Tseretelli bravely endeavoured to persuade the meeting in favour of the decision, but the internationalists and social revolutionaries won. M. Tseretelli's defeat is symptomatic. It shows that the international element in the Workmen and Soldiers' Council still outweighs the patriotic element. A special commission has drafted measures in connection with the Provisional Government's decision to introduce the death penalty in Russia for the following offences: —High treason, espionage, disobedience of military orders, desertion, and ftirrender without making a defence. The

death penalty applies to the military and civilians alike.

The municipal elections resulted in the return of 73 Revolutionary Socialists, 69 Maximalists, 44 Constitutional Democrats, and 1-2 miscellaneous. Tho Social Revolutionaries polled 182,0CQ, the Extremists 174,000, and the Cadets 110,000. Tho Bourse Gazette announces a fresh split in tho Cabinet between the Constitutional Democrats and the Socialists.^

M. Lcbedeff, Acting Minister of Marine, has resigned in order to form a volunteer corps in the interior, with General Korniloff's approval. ThePetrograd correspondent of the Daily Chronicle writes that the Russian Government is fearful of tho result of the fall of Riga upon Finland. It is affirmed in some German military circles that the real object of the German offensive is to establish direct communication with Helsingfors, turn Finland into a second Poland, and use Finnish legions to fight Russia under a promise of tho creation of an independent Finland. Tho Helsingfors newspaper Vetcherno Vramya announces that the Senate has drafted a Bill for the final separation of Finland. The Bill will be presented as an ultimatum to the Provisional Government. Helsingfors reports that Russia is abolishing the Governor-generalship in Finland, and that a 'Russian committee will hereafter have charge of Finnish affairs. The Workers' and Soldiers' Council will not send delegates to Stockholm, as the other Allies are not represented. AN ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY PLOT. Newspapers state that the ex-heir presumptive (the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch) and his wife, and the Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovitch, are being kept under arrest in connection with an antirevolutionary plot. It is officially stated that besides the Grand Dukes, other members of the exCzar's entourage and certain monarchist politicians are implicated in an anti-revolu-tion plot. Evidence has been traced to intrigues in Petrograd, Moscow ? Kieff, Odessa, and Siberia. Large sums intended to be utilised in furtherance of the plot have been seized, and arrests continue to be made. It is probable that those notables belonging to the old regime who were arrested in connection with the counterrevolution plot, and who are now in the fortress of Peter and Paul, will be deported, including General Gourko, Madame Vuirubova (Lady-in-Waiting to the ex-Czarina and friend of Rasputin), and several exMinisters, besides two Grand Dukes, but a feeling exists that much more arbitrary steps than the Government has hitherto been able to take are essential before real progress towards more stable conditions can be made.

The object of the conspiracy in which the Grand Dukes, other members of the ex-Czar's entourage, and certain monarchist politicians are, implicated was to arrest the Provisional Government and place the Grand Duke Michael on the throne. It was not intended to liberate the ex-Czar. The arrest of the Grand Dukes is causing dissension in the Cabinet. M. Kerensky is accused of acting precipitately. The plot was in an embryonic stage, and some who were accused of participation proved innocent. General Gourko was expelled from Russia on Saturday, Bth inst. The Bourse Gazette says that the arrest of the Grand Dukes Avas due to the fear of a popular rally in their favour owing to events on the Riga front, similarly to the deserters in the south-west causing the removal of the ex-Imperialists to Tobolsk. The death of M. Sturmer, ex-Premier of Russia, who since the revolution has been a prisoner in a Petrograd fortress on a chargo of treason, is announced.