RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 February 1918, Page 5

RUSSIA.

EXCHANGE Oi PRISONERS IX ' PROGRESS. Berne, Feb. 13. A wireless message states that Germany and Russia have begun the exchange of prisoner*. A thousand from Russia traversed Warsaw towards Berlin. ___ RUSSIANS IN ENGLAND. v London. Feb. 13. Thirty-four thousand T!u«'tis in England are now freed from 1...' necessity of joining the army. RUSSIA'S .FRENZY. JREAT NATION GONE MAD. JBIL'MP-n OF LENINISM AND DEMAND FOR PEACE. tVriting from London under date Nov- ■ ember 2(!th the special correspondent oi ; the Sydney Son throws new light on the internal position of Russia. j The atmosphere of the Russian revolution has become stifling (says the writer). Catastrophe, blood-letting, fraternal hate, fill the air. There are endless streams of turgid talk. The educated speak of honor and reputation. But -what do the. educated count in Russia now? They have become poorer than the poor, their clothes, food and houses j have been taken from them, their very •words are suspected Mere instinct rules Russia to-day—the unbridled instincts of the beast- • j Lenin, alias Ulianoff, alif.3 Zederblum, poisoned the workmen and the army, and their poor brains saw the world all tdpsy-turvey. He told tlie poor to seize the rich man's belongings, with the result that -all are asmeU and death is frequent. "He raised forced lor.ns. Ar Commander-in-Chief he appointed an anarchist who until three months ago was ; exiled in Switzerland—a queer, amiable, bearded man of 40, '-Father Abraham" to tie villager* of his home, a man whose -only military experience was that Kerensky, in a burst of friendship, made Mm a lieutenant. Lenin authorised all nationalities in Russia to proclaim separate and Independent Governments. Be starved out the great munifioji works, whose employees were against him- He stopped payment for supplies of war. The result was chaos. THE SECRET TREATIES. The tml temper of the German-Jew and Nihilist gang.was evidenced when, after declaring that they had tossed all treaties on the rubbish heap, they began publishing in their newspapers the text of secret diplomatic correspondence between the Allies during the war. The documents so far have made no impres'sftm- The uneducated Russians do not understand the diplomatic jargon, and are only bored. Dr Williams, of the Daily Chronicle, gives in dispatch typical y.MSiwi comment: ~ 'Two workmen discussed the correspondence. 'These secrets should never have been published,' said one, 'because, everyone will now be cutting each other's throats.' 'Why? asked the fltber. 'Because, you see, it shows .how *fl the landowners and prinees put their Jieads together and agreed to "kill off the eomman folk so as to keep all thfir money to themselves.'" . Such is the outlook of the simple Russian, drugged hy the anarchists' promise of pesce and wealth, upon the world. What nationalities this strange gang of anarchists actually belongs ib arc not yet denned. Lenin himself seems to be a South Russian of Jewish extraction. Trotsky is said to k f German-Jew, Kaffleneff, who deserted the Lenin standard, is pure Russian, hut Krylenko is sn Austrian Jew. m ORGY OF DESTRUCTION. Jle interior of Russia is en fire with -passion and' madness. 'Landowners are being slain and tortured, their property mized or burnt Pogroms or massacres are frequent. Village is warring against .village. All this could be observed with equanimity, for life in Bussia has always been cheap, and that some thousands of "bourgeois" throats are cut will pot materially affect Russia's population. 'But in these doings the Russians have stooped to sheer savagery. Ko part of the vast republic, except one corner, seems to have been spared these horrors. That corner is the Caucasus, where a Moderate Socialist Government has maintained order, and even conducts a war on its own account against the Turks, of -whom 1900 were 'captured ikis month in a set 'battle in Armenia. This Government has entered negotiations with a Cossack Government established across its northern boundary, but the Cossack Ministers are busy r'e«*Winjr some semWanoe of order amongst , their own- folk, and have no time for > *%tttign" negotiations Each new Gov-

forces to the task of securing order. I The Cossacks themselves have always keen proud of their pure democracy, and insist that their communal management of their lands requires uo reform. But amongst them are many thousands" who have outgrown the patriarchal holdings, who are working in mines or as wageearners in factories, and who have risen with the Bolsheviks. In Skvira there has been a Jewish pogrom—most horrible of massacres, for fearful racial hate romes to the surface.

But the Cocsaeks do not get as low. js some of the inland peasant tribes, who have wild dances around pyres jiipon which they have piled the bodies of victims, and drink and eat gluttonously as though having a savage feast.

Tb? Moscow "Busskoe. Slovo'' tells of a typical happening in Kaizm, where the new Government adopted a resolution ■-deelarirg that all -privaiMy-owned estates should be. distributed i-.mongst the peasants, who werc to pay to the Str.tc .'in sjinual rental of from .> to 10 roubles (nominally 10a to 20.5) per dwsictii;--r.bor.t 2-i acres. The peasant'' from that mnmfc..t icjanled the estates as theirs No sooner <l.,i <Jie corn in the fields and the vegetable:- ia the garden ripen crowds inf [aa-anis begen to plunder, nejlei.ttng their own .fields and gardens. The ovnen vera forbidden to use r.ny of their produce or cell it without the periiiir,.«io-.i of the Government, while a leriiisst for .1 pingle sheep for the ov/n----ovV, household would lie for weeks in the Government's rffico without an answer Kav-n; completely plundered one estate, t.io peasants were confronted with the of what to do with th 3 owner's rcsidcMe. They held a meeting, and inuilsed i:i the national failing of talkThen they divided the household goods -tripvmp p V ;n the roof for planks aJ Elork f-.ea Fleet. He protested vehemcnSy ajranst the house being left standmg So they burnt it. They roasted cattle and she*)), Ud oVgy an danced round the flames. A RUSSIAN PEACE. The fact has to he faced thr.t the Kuss.an soldiery wants peace. It is aoiilufyl now whether a great victory League could rouse the armies They have now more munitions tha„ ever before, more men at the depots, more <-ft»nee of breaking through On their Kouthern front they bear the honorable responsibility of tending to the Roumanian army, which came into the war at Russia s behest. But nothing win in . S J*l I tliem - * am told h y ttow with 'SS, f fr; enc ", wit " evolutionary «nssia that for the first three month's after the downfall of the Cm? fThtin W, and enthusiasm for the. war wa« ™n*, , K r« nßk ' V 4id a! 1 th at leader could do to h«p e of victory. BuT the leaven of- Leninism was already wrkmg and its,uttim a tc triumph wL never seriously in dispute.