HEATED DEBATE BY FRENCH DEPUTIES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17535, 31 March 1919, Page 5

HEATED DEBATE BY FRENCH DEPUTIES.

M. PICHON TAKES A |ffAND.

(Received March 30, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON,, March 29

French apprehensions regarding Bolshevism were reflected in' a heated debate id the Chamber of' Deputies in the last few days on the situation in Russia. :

M. Pichon declared that Bolshevism was not only the plague rof Russia but of humanity. The French •Government had been accused iof playing into the hands of the Russian reactionaries which meant that all who were not partisans of Lenin and Trotsky were to be regarded as Tsarists. He regretted thai.the Socialist minority had united to support the Bolshevists against his Government. What the latter desired was a Russian-federal.republic He did not despise the Bolshevist army which was staffed by German officers.

The • Socialists hotly protested against, being stigmatised as • Bolshevists because they resisted the idea of military intervention in Russia. ''';■■. ■• • .":." •........

M. Pichon rejoined: "You -are not Socialists."

Uproar drowned M. Plchpn's further remarks.

M. Pichon maintained that it was necessary to retain the Allied forces in Russia. He stated there were 13,000 British, 5,000 American, 2,349 French, 2,500 Italian'and Serbians, and 12,000 Russians in. the Archangel region. .-r