SOVIET RUSSIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3574, 12 September 1922, Page 23

SOVIET RUSSIA.

HARVEST PROSPECTS. LONDON, September 4. The promoters of the “Save the Children” Fund report that the Russian harvest has failed, and unless supplies from other sources are received the whole TransVolga and Uralsk area, where 300,000 children are being fed, and the area on the west bank of the Volga, where 400,000 children and adults are receiving assistance, will be faced with famine. September 5. A much brighter outlook in the famine regions in Russia is indicated by Ylr Fleteh, the president of the United States Grain Corporation and controller of the American Relief Administration, who has arrived here after a month's inspection. He expresses the opinion that Russia will have enough food until the next harvest if it is properly distributed. The crops look excellent. FOREIGN FINANCIERS ASSIST. COPENHAGEN, September 5. The Berlinske Tidende states that a Russian private bank will be created in the near future with the support of a foreign consortium, in which financial houses in Sweden, Denmark, and the United States will participate. Herr Stinnes and the Krupps company have promised to support the project. ENEMIES RUTHLESSLY EXECUTED. LONDON, September 5. The Daily Mail’s Berlin correspondent states that' 100 persons who were condemned to death for conspiring to overthrow the rule of the Radovsky Bolshevists in South Russia were shot on September 1, and on September 4, 52 were sentenced to death for the same offence. M. Radovsky was a Bolshevist delegate to Genoa who daily lectured the foreign press on the beauty of Bolshevism. THE SOVIET'S ULTIMATUM. LONDON, September 4. The Daily Chronicle’s Helsingfors correspondent states that the Soviet Government has sent an ultimatum to the Vladivostock White Government to lay down arms by September 15. SOVIET RUSSIA. LONDON, September 5. Advices via Riga from Moscow state that the Soviet Budget for 1922 23 estimates that the Red army expenditure) will total 400,000,000 gold roubles, which is equivalent to 34 per cent, of tho whole Budget expenditure.

APPEAL TO LEAGUE OF NATIONS. GENEVA, September 7. Dr Nansen, speaking for Norway, asked the league to send an International Commission to Russia, not for humanitarian but for economic purposes, in order to restore the worlds producing orbit. , FRENCH FIX ANCIERS. PARIS. September 7. Fifty leading French industrialists and financiers, who owned large interests in Russia before the revolution, have received invitations from the. Moscow Government to return and resume the operation of their industries. The Foreign Office has not yet granted passports or announced its policy. JAPAN AND RUSSIA. TOKIO. September 7. The conference between Japan and Russia has adjourned, following a disagreement over the scope of the agenda. Japan also refused to recognise the Russian delegates’ claim that they represented both Moscow and Chita. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. COPENHAGEN. September 8. Messages from Helsingfors state that a rebellion has broken out in South Russia. The Workmen's Council at Odessa has declared South Russia and the Crimea independent. Fighting is proceeding in many districts between the rebels and the Reds, who are negotiating with the Bulgarian Communists. The crews of several warships at Sebastopol have mutinied.