Russia

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 98, 22 November 1916, Page 5

Russia

■ POLITICAL CRISIS. £ | -jn*i . )i an iftwti lijcs ■ \ ■ /.!i■. Km liiii 'fcj to i>il PLOTTING FOR PEACE WITH THE ENEMY. WORK OF THE BUREAUCRACY, Press Association—Copyright, Austra lian and N.Z. Cable Association London, November 21. The Daily Chronicle's correspondent states that tlnj Russian pplical crisis is explained by a Speech delivered by M. Milinkoff, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party, which has been suppressed, but which was mimeographed, and copies are now circulating in Petrograd and Moscow. The speech revealed a plot on the part of the pro-German members of the Court to foster the idea of a separate peace with Germany wherein many Ministers were implicated. / The effect of the speech in the Duma was extraordinary. The Ministers concerned did not dare to face Milinkbff’s attack, only the War and Naval Ministers remaining in the Duma Hall. M. Milinkoff stated that M. Petropopoff, the new Minister for the Interior, and leader of the pro-German Party, was aiming at a Husso-Germau peace, defending the interests of the banks which were closely connected with tlie Deutsche Bank. M, Pctropopoff represents the Russian Bureaucracy, ' which fears the crushing of Prussia, meaning the end of Bureaucracy power. The Bureaucrats are chief tly recruited from the Baltic provinces, and are new more allied to Prussia than to Russia. The War and Naval Ministers have now openly dissociated themselves from their colleagues, and proved themselves ready to co-operate on bloc to prevent a patched-up peace. The War Minister indicated that Generals Alexeieff, Russky, and Brusiloff held the same view, showing that four million bayonets are now behind the progressive bloc of the Duma. The bloc has another strong weapon in the food problem, which demands immediate settlement. Further political problems are awaited with anxiety. It is possible M. Milinkoff will be prosecuted.