PERPLEXITY AND PANIC.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLII, Issue 11472, 26 February 1918, Page 5

PERPLEXITY AND PANIC.

"DIVIDED OPINIONS. VOLUNTEERS BEING ENROLLED. Petrograd, Fob. 24. Many non-Bolshveik Socialists favour guerilla warfare, believing that the proletariat of the Central Powers will yet rise. The Commissaries, however, plead that they must, like the defeated strikers, accept the enemy terms ■ and rescue their country and the revolution from ruin and exhaustion. The Commissaries are issuing a pandemonium of decrees, proclamations and exhortations. First they stated that the Germans would restore the landlords, hankers, and the monarchy, and called on all the workers to enrol iu’J the Red Army, and to expel from their ranks and to wipe off the face of the earth the hooligans and cowards; then an hour later they’announced their readiness to accept the Germans’ terms. The perplexed peasants and soldiers are hurrying bacS to their villages faster than ever. This moans that any new national force must necessarily bo raised from the unemployed workers, whose increasing numbers, owing to the Bolsheviks’ policy closing the mills and factories, are becoming a serious danger. Reuter. The enrolment of voltnte'l's to defend the capital Is proceeding rapidly. It is anticipated that 50,000 will be under arms in a few days. Besides the soldiers who desire to fight, special Socialist regiments are forming from tiro Esthoniau, Lettish, and Mussulman regiments. At Petrograd many women wish to take up arms against the Germans and.the supporters of Kaledin. The same is happening at Kioff, Moscow, and Pskov.

OCCUPATION OF THE AALANDH. A SYvEDISII SEIZURE. (Aust. aad N.Z. Cable Association.) Stockholm, Feb. S-f. • An agreement has been readied for the evacuation of the Aaland Islands by the Russian and Finnish troops. A Swedish force lias gone to the Islands to maintain order.