REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3395, 9 April 1919, Page 17

REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.

ANXIETY ABOUT TROOPS IN THE

NORTH

REINFORCEMENTS TO BE SENT,

(By Cable.)

A counter-revolution in support of the Menshevists has broken out at PetrogTad. Reports from Russia state that there are industrial strikes and meetings against the Bolshevist regime. The workers are denouncing the Bolshevists' dictatorship and their betrayal of democratic ideals. Trotsky is no-w at Moscow negotiating a Russo-German alliance.

Lenin has decree forbidding a religious ceremony at funerals and the prohibition of the erection of crosses on the graves of dead Christians. It is reported that Trotsky threatened to shoot "all the seamen aboarijl two battleships and a few destroyers in Petrograd If they refused to go to sea and meet the Allied fleet. The Bolshevists devastated the town of Ossa (60 miles south-west of Perm), killing 2000 people, including the educated classes.

BOLSHEVIST ATTACKS DEFEATED. A British North Russian official communique says: Four times on March 31 the Bolshevists strongly attacked us eastward of Bolshoozorki and again next morning, but all the attacks were repulsed. The prisoners captured include a regimental commissary, who stated that these attacks w«re intended to be decisive.

The Australian Press Association learns that the Bolshevists assumed the offensive on April 1 and 2, but were repulsed. They renewed the attack on the 3rd, and the result of the fighting is still unknown. A critical time is inevitable until the White Sea opens for navigation again. British river boats are now held up in the ice around Archangel, whereas when the Dwina thaws the Bolshevists will be able to use. armed steamers before the Allies can. As, however, the British hold the Murman - railway it is hoped that some reinforcements will be rushed into Archangel by the middle of May. Shiploads of aeroplanes, blocked in the White Sea, are now trying to reach Archangel, where the food difficulty is increasing the danger. " The military situation at Odessa is fairly satisfactory, but food is so short that it may be impossible to hold the town. The British crushingly defeated a large Bolshevist force who were attacking the Allied blockhouses.

Helsingfors newspapers state that the Bolshevists have planned an attack on a large scale on the Murman coast in the ronng, and are mobilising men and munitions. Despatches from Archangel say there are indications that the Bolshevists are trying to restrain the savagery of their troops on the Dwina front, where they have been accused of killing and torturing prisoners. A PRECARIOUS POSITION.

The Australian Press Association learns that the situation on the- Murman-Arch-angel front is causing anxiety. The American reinforcements have gone, and a,* British contingent is being : prepared which it is hoped will reach the front by the end of May, The Allies have been constantly weakening their forces, and the Bolshevists are certain to make efforts to push the BrilSsh at Archangel into the eea during the next two months, when the Bolshevists will be assisted by thawing rivers. The British division is thus likely to have a very bad time, and should be reinforced or relieved at the earliest possible moment. The great asset of the expedition is General Ironside, the famous traveller, who, disguised as a native, drove an ox Sagon during the Herrero campaign in erman South-West Africa. He is a man of wonderful spirit, and has been spending his whole time visiting posts on the long front, encouraging the men. It is considered 1 that it would be deplorable if Archangel suffers a disaster similar to that at Kut, and would have the worst possible effect, on British prestige throughout the world, as wejl as encouraging German resistance.

As part of the plans to reinforce the expedition to Archangel the British Government has decided to requisition the specially-built ice-resisting steamers Tsar and Tsaritza, which are now en route from- \Liverpool to Australia carrying tToops. ' . f '• The transhipment has been' arranged at Port Said, where the Tsaritza arrived on March 27 and the. Tsar to-day. The Australasians re-embarked on the Imperial hospital ships Dunluce Castle and Dongola. It is officially announced that the War Office is preparing with the utmost rapidity to despatch a relieving force for our troops in Russia. They will sail for Murmansk, whence they will proceed at the earliest possible moment to the Archangel front.. A second main force will follow them in Wo sections.

It is intended that the main force shall consist mostly of volunteers, for whom the War Office is making an immediate Appeal. Many officers who distinguished themselves in France and other theatres are applying to serve.Sir Ernest Shackleton, who has returned from Murmansk (Lapland) to Archangel, Was interviewed by Reuter's Archangel correspondent. He said : " The position of the Allied northern forces is undoubtedly an anxious one. The Bolshevists are well equipped and organised, and are ably led. They largely outnumber the Allies; hence both our Murmansk and Archangel fronts are in danger. It is not merely a question of saving our own troops, for naif a million people threw in their lot

with us originally against the Germans, and at present they are against the Bolshevists ; consequently there is a moral "obligation on our part to take definite action. An announcement to this effect would be a spear-point thrust in the heart of Bolshevism, and an incentive to Russian mobilisation." Sir E. Shackleton was confident that sufficient volunteers could be obtained to meet the situation. He urged that Britain had not yet realised what was at stake if the peril were not instantly grappled with. A three months' campaign by a volunteer army would break the Bolshevist monster, which was becoming far worse than German militarism.— AMERICAN TROOPS. It is reported that the Finnish troops in Northern Russia defeated the Americans. General Marsh denies that there is any seriousness in the situation at Archangel. He believes that the troops are adequate. UNUITY OF ACTION. The Daily Chronicle correspondent at Omsk reports that a detachment of Serbian troops, leaving Cherdin (80 miles northward of Perm) on skis, junctioned with the Allied and Russian troops operating on the Archangel front. Thus unity of action has been established between Archangel and Omsk. Trotsky, on the Ufa front, is endeavouring to rally the Red army eastward., of the Volga, where many are deserting to the Serbian side. It is reported that a detachment of General Kolchak's Siberian force has got into touch with the Allied force in the neighbourhood of Archangel. THE UKRANIAN POSITION. The Daily Chronicle states that latest information is that General Petlura's troops have been reinforced and have turned the flank of the Bolshevists, thus defeating the move against Rumania. General Petlura, the head of the Ukrainian forces, told an interviewer that unless the Allies come to his aid the Ukranian cause will be lost. A Vienna message states that the Ukrainian leaders have approached the Entente, with a view'to arranging peace with the Poles, leaving disputes regarding territory to be settled by a plebiscite. BOLSHEVIST DEFEATS. Reports from Stockholm state that several Luthanian towns revolted against the Bolshevists, destroyed the offices, and disarmed the Bolshevists. The War Office reports that General Shkur has captured Vladevoykay, finally defeating the Bolshevist army of 100,000 men, taking -prisoner 50,000, and capturing 13 armoured trains and 100 (? 200) guns. The Bolshevists have been expelled from the whole of the North Caucasus. General Shkur is successfully forming "new divisions, comprising two Rych Cossacks and others. UNEASINESS IN SIBERIA.' Despatches from Vladivostock state that there is growing uneasiness in Siberia. It is taken by the Allies as an indication that a revolutionary attempt will be made shortly. The Allied commanders are preparing to defend life and property without taking part in any political movement. Canada and Britain have formed a partnership in organising a Siberian Company with immense resources in order to further trade between Siberia and the" British Empire. The withdrawal of the Canadian forces from Siberia has been ordered. -. LACK OF CO-OPERATION. Lieutenant-general Tanaka, Minister of War, informed the Japanese House of Representatives that American troops re fused to co-operate with the Japanese during the fighting at Blagoveschensk. In answer to a question in the House of Commons regarding the Americans' refusal to co-operate with the Japanese when attacked by Bolshevists near Blagovestchenk (Eastern Siberia), Mr Churchill said the American commander thought the forces might be insurectionary persons mistaken for Bolshevists. British troops were not asked to quell disturbances, but would co-operate with other forces, including Americans, in maintaining order in areas where for the time being they were stationed. 9 Mr Wedgewood asked for an assurance that British troops would co-operate with Americans, but not with Japanese.—(Cries of "Oh.') Mr Wedgewood: "Because they are .white men." Mr Churchill said the matter must be left to the discretion of the officers on the spot. In this instance it was undoubtedly a well-armed force of Bolshevists. AN AMERICAN REPORT. The American delegation has ■ decided not to publish a report by Mr Bullitt, an American journalist, who recently visited Russia as a sort of unofficial representative of the American'Government. It is persistently rumoured that Mr Bullitt brought back a proposition from Lenin and that his report is decidedly pro-Bol-shevist. It is declared that the Soviets de facto form the government of a large part or Russia. In the House of Commons Mr Bonar Law declared that Mr Lloyd George knew nothing about the matter. THE REIGN OF TERROR. A Foreign Office White Book contains a collection of British official and other reports covering the Bolshevist regime from the summer of 1918 till the present date. It is issued in accordance with the decision of the War Cabinet last January. It is an appalling story of atrocities and misery. A British subject who left Moscow in December says that thousands of the inhabitants were shot, but lately

the victims were hanged. He mentions that 150 Russian officers who were taken prisoners at Pskoff were sawn to pieces by Mongolian soldiers. The British Consul at Ekaterinburg reported on January 13 that hundreds of civilians were murdered in the Ural towns. Captured officers had shoulder straps nailed to their shoulders. Some of the civilians had their eyes taken out, and others had their noses cut off, while others were dipped in the rivers till they were frozen to death.

The Dutch Minister in Petrograd did his utmost to' succour British and other Allied subjects, who were arrested wholesale in Moscow in the panio following the attempt to assassinate Lenin, He repeatedly Interviewed M. Tehitcherin, who was impressed with England's power, saying the time had come when the Soviet authorities must pay individually 'for acta of terriorism, but it was impossible to obtgi|n definite promises from M. Tehitcherin regarding the fate of British subjects. The measures adopted by the Bolshevists can only end in bankruptcy. Though the resources of' the country are such that there is still scope for a continuance of Bolshevist rule, the position of agriculture is monthly becoming more acute, and eventually the seed grain must be consumed and the food stocks and live stock exhausted.

THE FATE OP THE ROMANOFFS. Miss Maud Miller, who was a governess in Princess Volkonsky's family in Ukrainia, has arrived in London. She relates details of how the family was wiped out. A party of 15 Bolshevist soldiers rushed the Volkonsky's house, shot Prince Boris before his mother's eyes while at breakfast. Prince Volkonsky and his daughters, Princesses Natashia and Matiana, escaped to a neighbouring town, where they remained for six weeks. Then the Bolshevists cut Prince Volkonsky's throat, killed Princess Natashia with spears, and smashed in Princess Matiana's head. Previously Bolshevists had wiped out neighbouring families, so the Volkonskys had lived in daily terror. Miss Miller reached England via Constantinople.