REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3448, 13 April 1920, Page 19

REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.

(By Cable.) CONFLICT WITH POLES. WARSAW, April 4. The Bolshevists attacked the Boles on a 350-mile front, using the strongest avail"able troops, artillery, tanks, armoured cars, and cavalry. All attempts to compel peace were everywhere defeated with heavy loss. Poland is now able to dictate to Russia, hence the refusal of an armistice, except at Borison, where the Reds propose to negotiate. General Pilsulski, Polish leader, wants a quick Polish peace, not giving the chance of contrived delays. It is assumed in Britain, America, and elsewhere that the Poles wish to reestablish the 1771 frontier, taking in Kieff, Volhynia, and Podolia. This incorrect view arises from the neglect to disclose the conditions "of peace, even to the Allies. BOLSHEVISM'S WORST FEATURES. LONDON, April 4. British refugees tell appalling stories of torture and wholesale murders in Russia.'Leprosy and typhus are rampant, and starvation is causing thousands of deaths. The country has become one vast cemetery. . The same coffins are used repeatedly and the animals in the Zoo are being fed on human bcdie3. ADVANCE IN CAUCASUS. CONSTANTINOPLE, April 1. The Bolshevists are now advancing along the Caucasus towards Vladikavkaz, and are following up the railway towards Grosne, the centre of an oil region. RELATIONS WITH PERSIA. LONDON, April 5. It is understood that the Persian Foreign Minister is considering the establishment of a good understanding between Persia and the Soviet Government of Russia. Abich has declared his intention of abolishing all treaties and concessions injurious to Persia. TROOPS OCCUPY VLADIVOSTOCK. VANCOUVER, April 6. Japanese troops occuped Vladivostock after eight hours of severe fighting. POLISH TERMS REJECTED. MOSCOW, April 6. The Soviet Government has refused the Polish peace terms. } FINLAND'S FIRM ATTITUDE. MOSCOW, April 6. Finland has refused to continue negotiations, unless fighting ceases and the Reds are withdrawn. LENIN AND TROTSKY. ■ LONDON, April 6. A Moscow wireless message reports that General Trotsky, speaking at a Bolshevist conference, announced that the Red Army would be dissolved as soon as possible and a-militia force substituted. Lenin added: " We are instituting a socialism which the Arorkers in all European and American countries are watching to see whether we shall solve this difficult problem." THE ATTACK ON VLADIVOSTOCK. WASHINGTON, April 6. General Inouye, Japanese Military At tache, after receiving despatches from the Japanese War Department, announced that the attack on Vladivostock resulted because of threatened and aggressive acts by a portion of the Russian army. The Japanese commander, after disarming the Russians, issued a proclamation stating that his action had no motive other than to maintain order. Negotiations are now being carried on with the Russian authorities, the object of which is to arrive at an harmonious policy for the future. HOSPITAL PATIENTS INCINERATED. LONDON, April 7. Russian letters describe the tortures inflicted upon two British officers captured by the Bolshevists ai Rostov (a Sea of Azov port). They, were stripped, their arms were broken, and then they were tied to posts in the public square, while officers fired revolvers at their arms and legs. The Englishmen refused to kneel, whereupon their legs were broken, and they were then shot. Other accounts state that when the Bolshevists captured Rostov they found 500 wounded officers in the Volunteer Army Hospital. The Bolshevists packed the basement with inflammable materials, formed a cordon round the building to prevent' any escape, and then set fire to it. No one escaped the flames. A FIREBRAND ORATOR. GENERAL DENIKEN. WASHINGTON, April 7. The State Department learns that General Deniken has taken refuge on a British warship. THE SIBERIAN CLASH. SHANGHAI, April 7. Advices from Tokio, dated April 6, state that the Japanese War. Office announced that it was reported that hostilities began the previous day between Japanese and Russians at Niko'lsk and Rhabarovsk. POLAND "AND RUSSIA. COPENHAGEN, April 8. It is reported from Kovno that Poland has accepted the Soviet's proposal to hold a peace conference at Reval on April 10. ALLEVIATING DISTRESS. MOSCOW, April 8. A wireless" message declares that a rapprochement is imminent between the

United States and Russia. The first steps will be taken by Mr Hoover's Food Commission, which will soon arrive in Russia to alleviate the distress there. JAPAN'S SIBERIAN POLICY. TOKIO, April 4. Newspapers condemn the Government's policy in Siberia as an evasion of the public desire for the withdrawal of the troops. The papers declare that the policy shows a dominance of militarists in Japan. WASHINGTON, April 3?An announcement appearing in the Government Gazette at Tokio on March 31 states that Japan is unable to withdraw her troops from Siberia immediately owing to political conditions in Manchuria and Korea, and the fact that the lives and property of the Japanese in Siberia are menaced. Japan entertains no political ambitions against Russia, and the Japanese troops will be withdrawn as soon as conditions are remedied and the Czechoslovak troops are also withdrawn. ORDER OF THE RED FLAG. 6 MOSCOW, April 9. - The Communist Conference decided to confer the Order of the Red Flag, the highest distinction which Soviet Russia can bestow, on M. Clemenceau and Mr Winston Churchill, in recognition of their great work for an international revolution. RISING AT KIEFF. PARIS, April 9. The Geneva correspondent of the Echo de Paris announces that a rising has taKen place among the Bolshevists at Kieff. Many Red notables were arrested. The Soviet Government has been overthrown, and the Cabinet has fled. THE SIBERIAN EBULLITION. STATE OF WAR DECLARED. TOKIO, April 9.' A state of war has been declared at Vladivostock. The Japanese, after brisk fighting, disarmed the Russian garrison. LONDON, April 9. It is understood that official assurances have been received that the Japanese have no designs on Siberia, where they still have • three divisions on a peace footing. The Japanese are prepared to evacuate Siberia at the earliest- possible date, and have already retired from the whole of the Amur railway, leaving detachments to guard certain strategic points. Complete evacuation is hampered by the depredations of roving Bolshevist bands, who are damaging property and stores, cutting the railways, and seriously interfering with the Japanese movements. Therefore, in order to secure their base, the Japanese occupied Vladivostock, and they are now making efforts to come to terms with the Provisional Bolshevist Government, with a view to enlisting its support in the suppression of the marauders. The Bolshevists possess great supplies of arms, and are secretly engaged in arming the Koreans and encouraging the formation of anti-Japanese organisations there. THE MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND. OTTAWA, April 8. Mr Tom Moore, president of the Canadian Trades and Labour Congress, and Canada's representative ' at the International Labour Congress held in England under the League of Nations, has returned. He said that Bolshevism was slowly but surely dying in England, where free speech was killing it. English Labour was learning the unsoundness of the doctrines, not only from those wishing to discredit the. movement, but from the Radicals themselves. English Labour was becoming disgusted with the Reds and re- , pudiating the movement. I British workers undoubtedly were rapidly moving towards a system of State capital and control, especially of the key industries. Bolshevistic eoap-box orators abounded openly, advocating the Soviet form of Government for Britain, but no- | body paid much attention. He thought j that any attempt at revolutionary action would be quickly nipped in the bud. AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW. LONDON, April 9. Sergeant-major' J. G. Gray, of Richmond, Melbourne, formerly of the Bth ; Battery, has returned from Russia, where he was engaged in British secret service work mainly in the neighbourhood of Petrograd, which he left a month ago. He describes the conditions as deplorable. There are practically no factories working. Food is very scarce and very coarse. A pound of tea costs 600 roubles. The great majority of the men are still under arms. Red Women Guards, armed to the teeth, are also constantly patrolling the streets. Even the smallest I villages are - under close supervision. Despite its appalling social conditions | Petrograd is very gay. The trams are running, there are the usual theatres, and dancing saloons are filled with vulgar crowds, but gentlefolk are entirely absent. The aristocrats seem almost completely to have disappeared. A few are occasionally encountered in humble surroundings in remote villages, but the majority have fled. Many high born Russian ladies have taken refuge in Finland, where they are acting as governesses and clerks. It is impossible to estimate the extent of the anti-Bolshevist feeling in Russia. The people appear to be afraid to express opinions, but open violence and outrages, of which he saw many evidences and heard dreadful stories, appear to be ; less prevalent than formerly. j Sergeant-major Gray wore a peasant's clothes and escaped detection. His care- j fully manicured nails once aroused sus- j •picion, but his sound knowledge of the ' Russian language put the Bolshevists off the scent. Sergeant-major Gray, with other members of the party, on' completion of their mission, returned to Finland across the

[ frozen Finland Gulf on skis and encoun- | tered a violent blizzard with the temI peratnre 42 degrees below zero. While skiing on Lake Ladoga he lost his direction for 11 hours, finally reaching a village in a state of coHapse. His condition remained serious even after his arrival in England, via Kelsingsfors, at the end of March. Sergeant-major Gray, saw service abroad and after the armistice was on the roll on an Australian boat when he decided to join the British lake flotilla, proceeding to Lake Onega. The flotilla consisted'of six 35ft motor boats and four 40ft ones. Sergeant-major Gray's boat was manned by four Australians, two South African.?, and a New Zealandcr. The crew exchanged a bottle of whisky for an Australian ensign. They succeeded in capturing the first Bolshevist steamer, Azod, and hauled down the Bolshevist red' flag, hoisting. an Australian ensign. On one occasion the socalled "Aussie" boat backfired, putting her out of action. The vessel drifted all night long, and was posted as missing, but she was later discovered by an aeroplane, and succeeded in returning under her oAvn power. Sergeant-major Gray, after three months on Lake Onega, returned to England, via Murmansk. When the British evacuation of Russia was undertaken, Sergeant-major Gray arranged for his immediate repatriation to Australia, and was proceeding on board a boat, his luggage being already on board, when, in response to a telegram, he joined the Russian secret service mission. v GENERAL ITEMS. CONSTANTINOPLE, April 5. Two Russian officers assassinated General Deniken's Chief of Staff (General Romanovik) at the Russian Embassy in Constantinople. The assailants escaped. A Geneva message announces that the Swiss Government declares thas there _ is no question of resuming relations with Russia. Telegraphic communication has been established between Peking and Petrograd, Archangel, Novocherkassk, and Astrakhan.