Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, AUG. 21, 1918. RUSSIA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14688, 21 August 1918, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, AUG. 21, 1918. RUSSIA.

Many people are . inclined to throw up. their hands in despair over Russia. The news that comes to ns from that country ia- frequently so scrappy,- -contradictory and and subject to suspicion because of the source through which it has come that it'is difficult to frame any coherent idea about the situation. One day we in*e told ' that the. Czechoslovaks are in the ascendancy and the next that! they are in reti-eat and are Appealing, urgently foi* Allied assistjance. Bolshevism, according to . some despatches, is still rampant throughout the country and other messages assert that it is on the wane. The Germans are first reported as advancing on Petrograd and then said to be withdrawing from Moscow. The probability is that with conditions as they are, oommuiiications interrupted and a reign of terror over the 'Country, no man can understand or ooirectly gauge the Russian situation. '-Russia is so big and its population . so diverge, that an idea of its, immense arej, and varying conditions can hardly, be grasped without extended study. There are a few things. that it is well to bear in mind in connection with the present confused aspect of affairs in that unhappy country. One of these is that its vast area is about two and one-half times as large aa the United States. Another is that though ita total population is about 175 millions, it has • only nineteen towns with a. population ovei* 100,000. The great majority of the Russian people being agriculturists— there are about 145,000,---000 of . » them — dwell in villages. Of these villages there are about 725,000, and they range in population per village from 100 to 3000 persons. There is not much more\ scattered population anywhere than that of Russia and there is none •in which it -is more difficult to secure any solidarity bf action or idea. At lhe beginning of the war the. peasants were brought together by then* hereditary devotion to the Czar, which took on almost a religious complexion. The "Little Father" gobe, they are at a nonplus, but it caii not bo said that they have yet absorbed the ideas of the Bolsheviki.. Tlie masses of the < population are not yet addicted to revolution as a • habit, but think of it chiefly as a- means of, altering the condition's of their rural' industries. They ai-e a bucolic people; and think mainly in terms, bucolic. The last time that this peasant population was roused to united action, previous to the war, '■ was 'when the agrarian : troubles" at tho beginning oi" this ' tientury caused them to. throw in. their. lot with the revolution that' came to a head in 1905. Up to 1861 the peasants had been* serfs, ! the property...- with the land •on which they lived, of the landownei^. At their emancipation it was necessary to provide them with land of ' their own. The State therefore' .bought what wa,3 considered sufficient for the pur-

pose from the laiulownors, handed ...it over to the peasants, and recouped itself t by imposing a land tax on the peasants to expire after a period" of forty-nine years. This tax was felt 'to be exceed- ( ingly onevous. The Russo-Japanese war revealed, an appalling state ol" cor- • ruption and iuuompetency in thc govern- v nient of the country, and this wae the I occasion that was seized by the revolu- } tionaries of the town9 and cities for 1! the campaign oi* assassinations, military and naval mutinies and Socialist risings 2 that in 1903 brought the Government to ] its knees. But tn ere. seems to' be no t evidence that the 145 million peasants 1 caied: anything for oi* understood the <. political theories o'f tho revolutionaries, mere are a few million educated, Rus- • sians who control or seek to control . tlie destinies of this vast inert body of ' rural people, Some „o f these are reac- 1 t:onaries who look hack regretfully on . tlie Ilesh-pots of. bureaucracy. .Alany f are anarchists pure and' simple. Others, no doubt, arc iiigh-souled patriots whose . desire is to see Russia" established firmly * ou a democratic basis like, the~ nations ! of the Entente. A characteristic stoiy is to'd by Mr Maurice Baring about a • ooi tain revolutionary . who one day arrived at a village to convert the inhabitants to' Socialism. He thought he would'' begin by disproving the existence of God, because if lie -proved that there was no God, it would naturally follow tliat there should be no emperor and no ' policeman. So he took a holy picture .and said: ''There is ho- God and 1 will piove it immediately. I Mill spit upon Lin:, 'ikon,' and break it in; pieoes, iind it there is a God he Ivill send fire from heaven and kill me, and if there is no l<od nothing will happen to me at all." 'juien he took the ikon 'and spat upon it and broke it to bits and he said to the peasants: "You see, God has not killed me.'' "JSo," sa:d 'the peasants, "God has not killed you, but- we will." And ' they did so. Such seems to be about th.. line of reasoning current in Russia at the present time. Human life is cheap and is ruthlessly sacrificed, according to the whim. of the moment. \\ hat can be done to assist such people to come to a better frame of mind and to rehabilitate themselves'. Some would say it is hopeless and "urge that Russia be allowed to w-piik, ■, 'o^t' her own destiny, but Allied statesmen realise that this would simply mean leaving Russia to the tender mercies of • Germany and that such a course cannotibe thought -of for a moment .if the. -future, peace ' of tiie _ world is to be coiisidered. The war v-vd lu.t liave ended 'until regeneration coijies t.' Lns.sia and stable Government irf established there, — we can safely make up our minds on that. Not until Rus-si-,i .is iut in a position- in which she tan regain her national health without i'erir. A Geiman domination will the armies of* .the /.Jlies be disbanded. As the position stands, >vn'»,eo an American commentator, 75,000,000 and 10,000,000 JNlagyars dominate populations of other •races as numerous or. even more numerous and unless those i*aces ai-e now freed the slavery may he perpetual, and out of these enslaved races Germany will construct new armies and in duo course of time make, new attacks upon Europe. This' , is the story of .Prussia; this is the story of the Hohenzollerns; and as long as the way is open and the human material is at hand the Germans arc bound to keep on in their deitermii nation to restore the Roman world under German control. We are winning tho war on the battlefield.- Despite the dangers in the immediate future, there is clear water not to far ahead, so far as the military problems aro concerned. The* German by his operations in the East, is preparing his new line of attack and his new methods Of combat; We still havo every artifice in . his -whole stock employed for the precise -.purpose of blinding us to the real issues at stake and keeping open the roads to new expansions and the hopes of new conquests. If we permit our eyes to be blinded, our wounds, to weary us, our mistaken conceptions 'of Germans or of German idea's to deceive us, we shall have it all. to do over again and l the German •will* win the war. It is our duty to fight 'until Belgium is froed and France anct> : Italy regain their lost and rightful citizens aiid 'frontiers. But this is not the full measure of oiu* duty; It is our responsibility;'- to 'see" clearly and keep most constantly in mind what the larger issues are. Germany has dynamited the Russian edifice, but it would be fatal to leave her, in possession of the ruins. Permanent.- Austro-German control in Serb lands -would mean that the peace that ' follows- this struggle would be a truce, .a,.- breathing ppell only. We ought to. rfecognise that in freeing tlie Serb or Slavic peoples we are not engaged tipon.;a. quixotic mission, but in erectihg barriers against our common enemy. For 300 years arid more the Serbs fought the Turk along the Danube and broke, the weight of his thrust, and thus contributed greatly to .-.the salvation of Europe. Poland likewise sfived; Europe against Turk and Teuton. Both rqces-'.have a new mission nj-rthe new order* "tliat is to come; but it is essential tliat. 'Ve should mider^ stand that, the niissiori' is one of vital importance to us, that it is a necessary part of the insurance" we ate going to takg out ; against a vrepietitioii of the great' tra'gedy Of th© world war. We hfecve got- a new '-German offensive to' meet. The enemy if-nn^tj.-ated in his attempts to..v*in. a military decision, is. withdrawing his army to strong defensivenines, and will presently enter upon his second line- of action, -'Tliat* second "line"- is diplomacy, an.l, says the Ameri-. can writer, we have, got to be ready for him th^re, for- we' dan lose the war Justus easily as oil the battlefield, and itvwill be harder to win back* once wo have lost it in this 'fashion. In the German mind ' a pleach campaign is a war measure, aiid as his fightinwvohances diminish he turns, more and more eagerly to the second arm. "When wo talk about peace, we Allies, it is with the' thought of ending- the conflict, but witli the Gennai.i it- is merely 'tlie : effort to use • a desire for ' peace among his enemies as a means of winning . something he has not won by the * sword ■or-- perceives he cannot hold by .the Sword if the battle goes to its logical --'conclusion. Unless all signs' fail the' German is getting ready for a new pe£W.e offensive. It will be tlie most dangerous of all, because with eyei*y<» thing at stakie he will make it so. If it' fails, like his present military offensive, then 'he will ■ lose -the "wai*. If it succeeds, it will win thei war, even if he never gets mile nearer to Paris and ultimately sm*renders Metz and Strassburg. . The Gemian peace of- ' ferisive will be iri the Ea^t, and the Allies ;by, establishing themselves at Murmansk, Arc._ai_gse_, and im Liberia show tliat they are prepared to meet thiit offensive '.by 'an appeal to tho Russian people to come under the banner of Liberty. They-' may have to go deeper, into Russia to reach the people and win them, but it is quite, certain that they can nevter withdraw until there stim adequate guarante.es that Russia will bo free to, work out her own destiny.