The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1919. DISTRACTED RUSSIA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXIV, Issue 17654, 2 September 1919, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1919. DISTRACTED RUSSIA.

We gather from the published reviews—the works themselves have not yet reached us—-that a good deal of light is thrown upon the progress of events in Russia by two books, each of which is complementary to the other. . "The Russian Diary of an Englishman" describes the immediate, antecedents of the Revolution and the ineffectual attempts of its leaders to maintain order amid the chaos which they had created. The inevitable sequel is told in "The Facts About the Bolsheviks," which surveys the internal condition of Russia from the time that Lenin and Trotsky assumed control of the Soviets. The form of the "Diary" supplies evidence of its authenticity; it was clearly kept without, any thought of subsequent publication. It contains many entries which possess merely a personal interest, accounts of visits to friends and of entertainments, jottings of court and embassy gossip, and so forth. But through it all one can trace the writer's growing conviction that all was not well with the State of Riissia and that the Revolution, so far from improving the situation, was only a change from the frying-pan to the lire. When Lord Milner returned from -Russia on the eve of the revolution and reported that, the position there had never been more satisfactory, ie did not express the views of many Englishmen on the spot who were aware Miat there was strong feeling against the Royal family, particularly the late Czarina. The writer acquits her of any pro-German sympathies, but she was passionately anti-Duma and ambitious for her son. and she accused her husband of weakness in the assertion of the Royal rights. Late in 1916 the notorious Rasputin, the Czarina's confidant, blurted out in his cups that she and her supporters intended to bring about a coup d'etat the following January, dethrone the Czar, and instal the Crown Prince in his stead. This led to the assassination of Rasputin by a loyalist, and his death was the spark which set the revolution ablaze. Here again the writer did not share the optimism of those, less qualified to judge, who thought that the revolution would be a good thing for the Allies. He could see for himself how things were tending. He knew that the army was utterly untrustworthy and unamenable to disnipHne. and that among the revolutionists were hordes of German agents who inciied them to extreme violence. He could see that the lead-

ers were not the men to control the forces they had evoked: the regime of Kerensky, for example, from which we, in our ignorance, hoped so much, was characterised by "an unhappy combination of pretentious incompetence and personal cowardice." In Petrograd things were going from bad to worse. The "bloodless" revolution (the adjective was, at any time, a gross misnomer) was marked by greater and greater excesses. By September 26, when the writer left for Britain-, the city was virtually given up to anarchy; no one, whatever his nationality, was safe, and we can understand the feelings which prompted the final laconic entry: "Aberdeeit. Landed 9 a.m. Delighted to see policemen again." "The Facts about the Bolsheviks" takes up the tale where the Englishman's diary leaves off. This is a compilation from sources the authority of which cannot be gainsaid. The bulk of the material is supplied by the official Bolshevik Press itself, and this is supplemented by the accounts of trustworthy eyewitnesses, including the Dutch Minister to Russia, a member of the Norwegian Socialist deputation which visited Russia last March, and an English trades unionist who spent some time in Russia in 1918. As an indictment of Bolshevism and all its works it gains force ' from its temperateness of statement. It is not conocerned wifcji the sporadic outrages and abuses wliicb must accompany any social upheaval, but with the general lines of policy initiated by the Bolsheviks, and promulgated and justified by their Government organs. The Bolsheviks claim that they have brougtt democracy to Russia. It is a queer sort of democracy. It rests upon a franchise which is virtually restricted to the proletariat, and whenever this does not secure a Bolshevik majority various other devices are employed. Any town or village which elects a Soviet not sufficiently Bojshevik is, in effect, disfranchised. Frequently there is actual coercion. Trades unions are threatened with, the loss of their food privileges if they do not clV>6se Bolshevik officials. Factories have their supplies cut off and wages withheld unless they vote "Red." The case of Zlatousk, an industrial town, in March, 1918, is a typical example of Bolshevik electioneering. For twenty-one seats in the local Soviet only three Bolsheviks were elected. A few days afterwards Red Guards occupied the town, searched the houses and persons of^ all inhabitants of any note, and made many arrests. Thousands of working men chose a committee to protest against this action; two of its members were at once ftnprisoned hy the Bolsheviks, whose commander declared all the prisoners to be "counter-revolutionaries.". A?iother maetin? of protest was held, attended by thousands of workmen and peasant delegates from the country, whereupon the Bolsheviks declared the whole city "counter-revo-lutionary." All ordinary constitutional safeguards have lapsed; the courts of law have been suspended and their place taken by revolutionary tribunals which administer Bolshevik "justice." There is no free-! dom of public assembly in Russia, and the Press other than the Bolshevik Press has been crushed out of existence; to-day, in fact, apart from the Bolshevik journals, the only paper published in Russia is a German one! A veritable reign of terror has been established by which the Bolsheviks maintain their power. They have never denied the reality of their "frightfulness." The official organ of the Petrograd Soviet reports Zinoviev, its leader, as saying: "To overcome our enemies we must have our own militarism. We must win over to our side ninety millions out. of the one hundred millions of people _in Russia. As for the rest we have nothing to say to them; they must be annihilated." Nor is the expression metaphorical; the "annihilation" is meant literally. The official journals are full of reports of bourgeois and socialists thrown into concentration camps as hostages .thereafter to be murdered for some deed for which they were not responsible. The-folloving is a verbatim extract from the "Northern Commune" (the journal quoted above) of September 18, 1918:— "In Perm, in retaliation for the assassination of Uritsky, and the attempt on Lenin (both these events happened a thousand miles away from Perm), fifty hostages were shot." "Our opponents have forgotten that for one we shoot thousands," grimly Writes the "Red Gazette" about the same date, and it also complains that "instead of the several thousands of White Guards and their bourgeoise inspirers whom we are promised, only a few hundred

have been shot." The Bolsheviks' treatment of their hostages was even worse than the treatment of the Belgian hostages by the Germans, and those who were not hostages were equally exposed' to the .blood lust of the Reds. Constantly the phrase recurs in the Government journals, "The anti-soviet elements are being, shot," and lest it should be -thought that these massacres are isolated or exceptional, we quote a paragraph in a resolution passed by one oZ the Petrograd Soviets towards tiie end of last year: "This meeting we3conj.es the fact that Mass Terror is^ being employed against the Tipper bourgeois and declares that every attempt on the life of any of our leaders will be answered by the shooting down not of hundreds, as is the case now, but of thousands of White Guards, bankers, manufacturers, constitutional democrats, and Right-so-cialist revolutionaries."

LOCAL ASTD GEHERAI*

The membersh::> of the Wanganui Chamber of Commerce has reached the 250 mark, which is a record.

Exports from the Port of Wanga,hui for the week ending August 26 were as follows:—Cheese, £3 7,946; 'amb, £1855; mutton, £1919; hides and skins, £12,419; tallow, £1575.

A new shift system for members of the police force came into operation yesterday throughout the Dominion. The system of broken shifts from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. has been abolished in favour -of continuous shifts from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m., from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., and from 9 p.m. to o a.m. Intervals will be allowed for' meals. This sysitem has already been successfully tried in Wellington.

To-day's entertainment for FlightCommander Robertson, the official representative of Admiral of the. Fleet, Lord Jellicoe, will include a river excursion. The civic launch will be used, and the decorations and accommodation will be on the same scale of magnificence as marked the memorable occasion * when the vessel was sent up river to meet General Pau, the distinguished representative of the French nation.

I Mr. Carnegie left his works of art to his wife, naming the Carnegie Corporation as the residuary legatee (reports a New York message). Pro. vision for his wife and daughter was made during their lifetime. Ten thousand dollars each are bequeathed to Mr. Taft, Mrs. Roosevelt, and Mrs. .Cleveland. Mr. Carnegie left "1000 ,to Mr. John Burr.s, also to Messrs Burland and Wilson, two members of Parliament.

Truly the small boy would appear to have as many lives as the proverbial cat. About a quarter to 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon, as a youngster w:..; crossing the Avenue opp-osite the new building in course of erection near Chavannes 1 Hotel, he suddenly /'lost his head" in endeavouring to decide the best way of, dodging a motor-car which was coming along the street. He who hesitates is lost, and the boy learned to the full the truth of the old adage. He ended up by dropping right in front of the car, which knocked him down, and a gasp of horror went up as the lad screamed when the car passed i.igh'i over him. To the amazement of everyone, the boy did not so much as receive a bruise. In future,\ it is safe to assume that this miraculously lucky boy will look both ways before he crosses a street.

At the meeting of the Foxton Harbour Board on Thursday the local committee reported that the purchase of the had bef * completed as regards the payment of £5,000 to the Railway Department. Thj amount due to the Board had not yet been received, but vouchers had been sent to the Audit Department, and were expected to be passed shortly. Arrangements had been made with the Railway Department to handle all iaward cargo, and Messrs Levin and Co. all outward cargo, pending the erection of the Board's shed. So far, the only hope of securing a dredge to deal with the shoalings in the river appeared to be to Ziire ne. The quotation for the purchase of a new dredge delivered Trom Home was about £32,000, and the hiring might be the best proposition for the time being. It was proposed .to revise the pilotage and river lighting charges as they were quite inadequate to cover the cost under the new conditions. The new company's s.s. Kennedy had made her first trip this week. With other boats also running regularly, it was hoped that the trade of the port would gradually work up to and exceed that of pre-war time. Five sections had been leased, three on the water-front at £3 5/, one at the sanatorium at £1, and one of the middle sections at £1.

Unrest seems to be in the very air at present. There is national unrest, political. unrest, municipal unrest, and industrial unrest. This spirit of revolt against things as they are appears to have even spread to the animal kingdom. As a mob of some dozen well-grown bullocks were being driven through the town yesterday morning, they suddenly revolted against the idea of being ignominioualy turned into frozen beef or bovril, and, wheelinj sharply from Taupo Quay, the herd stampeded up St. Hill Street, with the solitary drover and his dogs after them in full cry. The clamour drew business people into the street in a hurry, and, sizing up the situation, some of the braver burgesses quic!:ly threw a cordon across the street, and waved their arms and shouted in an endeavour to stop the mad rush of the cattle. They succeeded only too well, as three bullocks came to a dead stop within a few feet of the human barricade. The drover, who was following up fast on his wiry, rough-coated pony, cannoned Into a big-white steer, who would have rejoiced a butcher's heart, and next moment bullock, horse, man, and dogs were mixed up in glorious confusion, the drover being on the ground, like a prostrate gladiator, almQst underneath the big bullock. Unhurt and undaunted the cowboy quickly remounted, while the lowing herd, apparently resigned to the idea that it was no use rebelling against destiny, docilely wended their way down the street and disappeared in the direction of the freezing works.