RUSSO-GERMAN PEACE TALKS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLII, Issue 11444, 25 January 1918, Page 5

RUSSO-GERMAN PEACE TALKS.

GERMANS COOKING REPORTS. TROTSKY MAKES A REPORT. Petrorgad, Jan. 23. The secretary of the Russian delegation to Brest Litovsk lias officially protested against the German verion of" the proceedings, in which Trotsky’s protest against Germany’s change of front is not mentioned.

PRACTICAL FAILURE OF NEGOTIATIONS.

RUSSIANS BECOMING DISAPPOINTED.

j TALK OF “MONSTROUS ANNEXATIONS.” AUSTRIA A SILENT MEMBER. London, Jan. 2’.1 " . wireless Russian , political official statement declares that the German annexationists have been .sufficiently powerful to impose their will upon the evasive dipt omats of the Hertling-Kuhlnuum school. The Austro-German delegation have refused to guarantee the withdrawal of the armies from occupied territories. This is a monstrous annexation. The Austro-Ger-man peoples are being deceived by their own Government before the whole world. The statement continues: “At the Brest Litovsk negotiations Austria gave her humble approval to all that Hoffmann and Kuhlmnnn said, but tin’s did not prevent the Austrian Socialists from telling fables to the Austrian workmen regarding Count Czernin’s endeavour to obtain peace.”

TROTSKY'S RETURN TO PETROGRAD

EVIDENTLY MUCH MORTIFIED. , GERMANS SHOW THEIR HAND. DESIROUS OF STRANGLING RUSSIA Potrograd, Jan. ,‘313. Trotsky has returned to'Potrograd from Brest Litovsk. Ho says the German tonus preponderate in favour of annexation. They make no secret of their desire to seize PoI land, Lithuania, and Courland. i Tliey iiopo to make Moon Island a new Gibraltar with a view to strangling Russia economically and politically. Ho added that the Austrians do not participate actively in the negotiations and merely assent to every Gorman proposal. Trotsky believes a final decision will shortly be reached. DISSOLUTION OF THE ASSEMBLY. SOVIET DECREE OF JUSTIFICATION

HOW SOCIALISM Will BE ESTABLISHED. AT THE POINT OF THE BAYONET London .Tan. 2:!. Dr Harold Williams, wiring from Petrograd, says tho decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly jnstilies the Bolshevik’s ; action. It says: “Tho Assembly was to he the crown of the bourgeois® parliamentary republic, but it proved an obstacle in the path of tho October revolution. It is rot a national, but only a class institution like that of the. Soviets, which is able to overcome the resistance of the propertied classes and lay tho foundations of the Socialist order.”

Lenin, speaking at a Socialist meeting, said: “The Soviets are kindling the flames of the revolution and command all the people to fight. The Soviets are breaking the pi liars of the bourgeois© order, not with golved hands, but in the proletarian way. ’ ’ Dr Williams goes on to say: “It is evident that Socialism will be introduced at the bayonet’s point. The programme will not he executed without a struggle. The position is extremely critical.

HOFFMAN'S WARNING.

LIMIT TO DEMOCRATS DOINGS. HANDS OFF OFFICERS. Petrograd, Jan. 23. General Hoffmann has warned the Russian Government that if they carry out their intention of giving German officer prisoners tho same regime as the men, Germany will cancel the project for a reciprocal improvement in the war prisoners’ conditions in Germany.

THE MURDER OF EX-MINISTERS

CONDEMNED BY LENIN.

PROLETARIAT PASSIONS BREAKING THROUGH.

OTHER MURDERS REPORTED. Loudon, Jan 23.. The Petrograd correspondent of the Daily Chronicle states that M. Lenin and the Soviets condemn the nnirder of M. Shingartff and Kokoshkin, the ex-Ministers, and have issued orders for the arrest of the assassins. It is clear that the murders were not committed hy order of the ■ entr 1 Bolshevik Government, which fears the consequences. Talk in Urn streets on Monday in

connection with the murders was menacing towards the Bolsheviks, owing to the popularity of M. Shingareif in Petrograd, and M. Kokoshkiu in Moscow. The murders indicate that the Bolshevik leaders are no longer able to control the passions of the mob which they aroused. Tho Morning Post’s correspondent states that it is rumoured that other ex-Miuisters in tho fortress or Peter and Paul suffered tiio same fate as M. M. Shingareff and Kokoshkin.