REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3352, 12 June 1918, Page 38

REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.

FOOD SITUATION DESPERATE. GERMAN INFLUENCE SPREADING. PROBLEM FOR ALLIES TO SOLVE. (By Cable.) News from Russia shows that the position continues one of the utmost uncertainty and disorder. The Petrograd correspondents aro silent, and nothing is known regarding the food and economic situation there, or regarding the movements of Finnish troops reported as m -v----ing towards the capital. The German newspapers announce the imminent rupture of negotiations" between Russia and tJkrainia. An agreement upon the frontier question is impossible. ' The Vorwarts publishes the Russian Government's proclamation, admitting that the food situation is desperate, and accusing counter-revolutionaries of disorganising distribution. The Government threatens to imprison people retaining grain. It is also arranging for searches throughout 'the country for concealed stocks of food. The Germans have agreed to the Russian proposal that a special commission shall deal with questions not decided by the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. The commission will meet in Moscow to discus.-, the situation in the Caucasus, independence ■ for the Crimea, the political situation in Finland and Estland, and economic relations. German papers state that Genera- Brussiloff, who was recently wounded _ in the leg' at Moscow while fighting with the Bolsheviks, is living on'charity in great poverty. His leg was amputated. The Washington State Department is advised that the Ambassador (Mr Francis) has left Velogcb, for Petrograd. The reason is not known THE GERMAN ADVANCE. Tlie Germans have informed the Russian naval authorities that the port of Con- , stanza, on the Rumanian coast, is now open. Germany is offering coal and agricultural implements in exchange for cereals, oil, and provisions. A telegram from Kharkoff states nat the Germans have occupied the railway junction of Lisky, rear Yoronesh, to which the Soviets had fallen back from Moscow on the 31st May, as they had already done at Petrograd. All the chief Moscow newspapers have been suppressed. A Bolshevik manifesto calls the work- " men and peasants to arms for bread for children, fathers, and mothers, and urges armed resistance against counter-revolu-tionaries and conspirators, and adds " Death to the enemies of the people.'' THE DON COSSACKS. The anti-Soviet Cossacks hanged the President of the Bolshevik Commissioners who had been sent to the Don Republic. AFFAIRS IN FINLAND. It is asserted that a Finnish-German convention exists whereby Finland engages to establish a monarchy Under a German dynasty, permit Germany to use the Aaland Islands or a place opposite the coast as a naval base, and use a Finnish harbour in the Arctic az a commercial port. Finland is also to undertake efficient measures to combat anarchists. Germany will maintain troops in Finland till the conditions are fulfilled. Probably a referendum will be taken to decide Finland's form of governnu #;■. The White Guards and the Germans in Finland have already executed 7PC) Red Guards. In the prison camps other Red Guard prisoners are starving to death or dying of epidemics. The Finnish Government proposes to send 70,000 Red Guard prisoners to Germany to work .in war industries. The Finnish Government has decreed the immediate expulsion of Russians from - Finland, under heavy penalties. Many Russians have been arrested. The Lokal Anzeiger denies that the German agreement with Finland means the establishment of a monarchy and the placing of the Finnish army under German officers. Meanwhile a German (Colonel Rederm) has been appointed Chief of Staff, and has begun to reorganise the Finnish army imder German instructors. General Mannerheim has been pensioned, aird hi.? treatment is causing much ill-feel-ing. Many oppose the monarchy, dreading their subjection to a German prince. They say, •' If we must have a king, let it be General Mannerheim, not a German Jlnjtfcer." THE POLISH LEGION. Court-martials on 91 officers and 84 men of the Polish Legion have begun at Marajnaros Sziget, in Hungary, on a charge of mutiny on February 16. The whole of the Austrian-Polish army on the eastern front mutinied on that date, destroying railways, telegraphs, and other communi cations leading westwards from Czernowitz (Bukowina). They then marched eastwards, intending to enter Ukrainia, but large Austrian forces surrounded and disarmed the mutineers. THE CAUCASUS. Delayed messages report that Russians defeated Turco-German forces in a big battle near Kars. The latter are reported to be retreating along the Ardahan road, massacring the population as they go. The Armenians since November have desperately resisted the advance of the Turks. The recapture of E'a'zerum was a remarkable event. Poorly fed and illequipped Armenians faced the Turks Biiigle-handed from November to February, when the Turkish attempt to occupy Batum roused the Georgians, who havo fiinco cooperated against the Turks, compelling the latter to bring fresh divisions

and delaying the Turkish march towards Persia. Reports from Tiflis state that the Turks have massacred over 10,000. Armenians in the last fortnight. The Caucasian Committees are mobilising all men between 19 and 42 years, and detachments are already concentrating in th< Tiflis area. SHOCKING CRUELTY. An escaped naval reservist relates a case of retaliation for the alleged murder of 36 Germans. The Libau authorities decided to kill 36 British. They took a largo number, tied them to poles, ""d suspended them for 14 nights for two and a-half hours at a time, their toes barely touching the ground. Many were frozen solid, and 14 died. The authorities sent 10 prisoners attired as sailors aboard a destroyer, provided them with coffee and cigarettes, and "filmed" them, under the title "Our Noble Navy's Kindness to a Brutal Enemy." SIBERIAN AFFAIRS. Reuter's Harbin correspondent states that Bolshevik forces are concentrating against General Scminoff (the Cossack leader), including 2COj Austro-Germanis. The Berlin press urges intervention in Siberia. General Seminoff, the Cbrsack leader, who, owing to dissensions at Harbin, left for Siberia on May 29, reports that the Bolsheviks have crossed the river Onon (about 300 miles east of Lake Baikal), and strongly pressed their attacks, which were stopped. An Austro-German cavalry brigade and four companies of infantry are threatening Seminoff's cornihunications. ALLIES TO AID RUSSIA. It is understood that the Allies have agreed to aid Russia by sending food and other necessaries, but will not intervene with the military forces unless requested. The Press Bureau states that the Prime Ministers of Great Britain, France, and Italy, meeting at Versailles', agreed to the following declarations: First—The creation of a united independent Polish State, with free access to sea, constitutes one of the conditions of a solid, just peace and the rule of right in Europe. Second —They associate themselves with America in an expression of earnest sympathy for the nationalistic aspirations for freedom of the Czecho-Slovak and JugoSlavic peoples. A special correspondent of The Times, in an instructive article, states that if the Allies emerge from the war with 170,000,000 Russians unrestored to stability or not harmonising with our ideals, we will have virtually sold our birthright for a mess of pottage. The Germans, who are working on a definite programme, are left in possession and control of a vast asset for generations. Russia, broadly viewed, is the most important problem of the world to-day. Whatever Power's redeem her will control the world 20 years hence. A RUSSIAN REPRESENTATIVE. A Russian officer commissioned by the pro-Allies Party to present Russia's case to the Allies has reached London, after several months' travelling via Siberia and India. He eluded the Bolshevik surveillance, and had hairbreadth escajjes, his life being attempted three times. He states that Generals Alexieff, Kaledin, Korniloff, and others had instructed him to make the strongest appeal to the Allies for armed intervention. Germany is rapidly enlisting Russians in the occupied provinces, and is building up a large army. She is easily persuading the peasants to enlist by promises of good pay and loot. She is likewise forming a Turkish Moslem army, recruited from Russian Tauranians, under German organisation and leadership, intended for conquest in India and the absorption of South Russia and the Caucasus, paving the way for a dire menace to Russia's northern sea route, it is intended to exclude the Allies from sea action. The Bolshevik outcry against -Japanese intervention in Siberia is devised to safeguard the East. The educated Russian minority, misunderstanding the Allies' silence, and believing that Russia, has alienated their sympathy, is inclined to accept German domination in preference to misrule, yet would instantly rally if promised help. Meanwhile, Germany rapidly continues the conquest of Russia. The Allies should not lose a moment. Next year will be too late to intervene. GERMAN AMBITION. Mr Harold Williams, in an article, says: Although Russia has gone out of the war, she yet in a very real sense remains in. We shall have made sacrifices in vain unless we find some solution of the new and vaster Russian problem. Americans may pour in in millions on the western front, and may rout the Germans, but apart from the re-conquest of Russia for the Allied cause we cannot win a world war. German ambition is aflame with a new dream of the East. The Kaiser is hastily gathering in the Czar's heritage, with all the inexhaustible resources of the Eurasian Plain. Russia has no government at present. The Bolsheviks are not a government, but an inhibition—a form of paralysis. JAPAN, CHINA, AND GERMANY. A section of the Japanese press forecasts an early revival of the question of intervention. It suggests more favourable consideration of Japanese interests, and that President Wilson should conform to the Allies' views. The United Press's Tokio correspondent states that a prominent Japanese, in denying the rumour that Japan was seeking an after-war pact witth Germany, declared : " Japan will adhere to the sensible Anglo-Japanese Alliance and continue to prosecute war against Germany." The chief reason why Japan asked China to expel the Germans is that Ger-

man Consuls and others are indulging in an anti-Allied propaganda. The recent Japo-Chinese treaty forces the Chinese to deal with the matter.

The United Press's Peking correspondent states that approximately 8500 Germans, mostly business men, w'U be deported from'China, and will be interned in Australia.

Major-general Ugald, who negotiated the Chino-Japanese Agreement, states that it is not limited to defence, and its scope is not confined to the Orient.

Peking messages point out that the publication of the exchanged between China, and Japan throws no light on the rumours of Japanese control of trading organisation and of the Chinese army. The fear \s growing that Japanese control may become general in China. The United Press correspondent at Tokyo says: The Government has issued a statement denying that the ChinoJapanese Military Agreement gives Japan control of the Chinese military forces or financial control of the railways .and mines.