RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 19

RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

GRAVE FEARS OF WAR, WARSAW, April 30. A report is current that a GermanBolshevist military agreement was signed in Berlin on March 4. It provides for the delivery by Germany to Russia of munitions, equipment, poison gas, instructors, aeroplanes, and wireless plant. The Soviet agrees to give Germany 20 warships and to maintain troous opposite the Polish frontiers. Poland is apprehensive that if Russia fails in its, demands at Genoa it will attack Poland as an indirect hit at France ; consequently as a precautionary measure Poland is calling up the 1901 class, and is retaining in the ranks some of the 1899 class due for demobilisation. STRENGTH OF ARMY. RIGA, April 30. The Soviet has issued a decree fixing the peace army at 2.500,000, and the war strength at 5,000,000, with 2,000,000 woman volunteers. EFFECTS OF FAMINE. SYDNEY, May 2. 1 rofessor Meredith Atkinson has returned from a visit to Russia. He thinks it will be 10 years before the economic recovery of Russia is feasible. The Soviet Government is inefficient, and is hampered by the famine relief work. Famine and disease have spread over thousands of square mi.es of country. He sleighed along roads which were lined with corpses in the evening, and in the morning had seen where bodies had »been stolen for food. He estimated that probably 5,000,000 Russians would die this summer. BOLSHEVIST PROPAGANDA. TEHERAN, April 29. After a period of inactivity, the Russian Legation recently resumed Bolshevist propagandist work with a view to upsetting the Cdbinet, particularly the War Minister, Sardar -Sepah, who is regarded as Persia’s strong man. Hitherto the people have suffered patiently under a flood of Bolshevist revolutionary propaganda although these doctrines are foreign to their national and religious instincts, but now in the face of efforts of Bolshevist agents in fomenting international political dissensions and even religious animosities between creeds, tolerance is changing to exasperation and annoyance. There is strong feeling against further Bolshevist interference in local politics. AMERICA AND RUSSIA. WASHINGTON, May 1. (Recevied May 2, at 8.10 p.m.) Mr Chas. Hughes (Secretary of State)’ replying to the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom, asking for American recognition of Russia, said that the political recognition of the Soviet was dependent upon the existence of a Government competent to discharge, and showing a disposition to discharge, its intcmational obligations. The United States did not intend to interfere with the Russian people in their attempt to work out their own destiny. The basis for the credit which Russia needed must he supplied inside Russia, and could not be supplied outside. Meanwhile the United States would continue to refuse recognition of the Soviet.

OUTSPOKEN CONDEMNATION. NEW YORK, April 30. Mr Samuel Gompers (President Of the American Eederation of Labour), after a conference with the Labour leaders a?, Chicago, issued a statement flaying Bolshevism and stating that in view of the developments at Genoa nothing could constitute a more needless or base betrayal of civilisation than American recognition of Bolshevist tyranny. A CHAPEL PLUNDERED. MOSCOW, May 4. Robbers plundered the Chapel of the Iverian Virgin. The stolen objects are valued at £BOO,OOO. This chapel is the most sacred church in Russia except the Holy Caverns at Kieff. POSITION MUST BE FACED. LONDON, May 4. . Independent advices concerning Russia incontestably disclose that the Bolshevists cannot continue under present conditions, because they have exhausted all avenues of spoliation and robbery. Russia must obtain loans or trade reciprocity, or else be smashed. ENVER PASHA’S LEADERSHIP. DELHI, May 3. (Received May 4, at 7.45 p.m.) Reports from Bokhara state that Enver Pasha’s leadership of the anti-Bolshevist movement is not due to personal purpose, but is the outcome of his capture by antiBolshevist elements who gave him the alternative of leading their enterprise or suffering final eclipse. The story must be accepted with reservation. The news indicates that success so far has accompanied the Eastern Bokharan revolt against the Bolshevists. GENERAL POLICY CONDEMNED. SYDNEY, May 4. Professor Meredith Atkinson declared that the general policy of the Bolshevists was as cruel and their conduct of business every whit as inefficient as had been reported. The Government was far more incompetent and much more addicted to red tape and pettifogging interference than was the Tsarist regime. Speaking of the Russo-German Pact, Professor Atkinson declared that it would surprise no one on the spot, for it was openly discussed in Moscow as the obvious line for the Soviet to take when he was there in February. He added that the Germans especially were getting back into Russia. The only relief work the Germans were doing was endeavouring to discover at their laboratories in Moscow a serum against typhus, which was ravaging the country. Describing the utter breakdown of transport, he said that the trains had always been several days late. He saw one arrive from Turkestan three weeks behind time. It was given up as lost, the assumption being that all aboard had died in a snowstorm. Twenty-five nassengers died on the journey, and the bodies were thrown into the snow. Asked if the Bolshevists would remain in power, Professor Atkinson said that he believed they would so long as they had a Red army and its rations were under their control, and so long as they were prepared to enter upon one strategic retreat after another, giving up point after point of Communism as it was found impracticable. He declared that Soviet agents had been deputed to follow him and refute liis statements. He had evidence of this wherever he lectured. He would never be allowed back in Russia, simply because he told the truth. The Labour Council, referring to Professor Atkinson’s interview regarding Russia, says : “Professor Atkinson has joined the ranks of the anti-Bolshevists, who at the present time are popular.’' It was nob true to say that Russia had renounced Communism and had returned to private enterprise.