TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIA.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15195, 16 April 1917, Page 4

TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIA.

STOMACH THE DICTATOB. REACTIONARIES' SCHEMES. (By Helen Jerome.) As Jong ago as last November, a Russian prophet, in the New York Times, liad outlined the possibilities of the tragic events which have just closed the door upon the old order in Russia. The embitterment and exhaustion of Bureaucracy up against the sij*emgthening and exaperation of Democracy—these two combatants it was who waged the last, round in the fight that has been in progress since 1905. Tho world has now—with the resilliency of the world—ceased to be amazed at the spectacle of the leaders of Russian Democracy at the head of what was the most autocratic Government in Europe. Few people realise tie influence the present war has had in the development of this very Democracy. The fact that the two factions joined, over the war, in the question of mobilising' all the resources of the country, does not prove any more ''rapport" between them t-han that of expediency in a common crisis. The attitude of the Democracy was that of patience, calmness, and a waiting until the storm had gone by. This might have continued until the end of the war, excepting for the food crisis, which was the first cause of the revolution—with three minor but also contributory causes to keep it company. The prophet whom I quote, who is a famous Russian writer, assures us that the three after-causes are all of a political character.

The continual and meaningless changes in the Cabinet (more flagrantly the appointment of Protopopoff as Minister of the Interior), the Government's attitude towards the people who were helpingl the army, and its contemptible and unjust attitude towards the Polish question. These are t«he final nails which were driven into the coffin of the existingl order in Russia. Of course, Russia has always been famous for the frequency and irrelevancy of its Cabinet changes. In the last two years Ministerial changes have outdone all previous historical records in frequency. The last straw apparently came when Boris Sturmer was appointed Premier. The country sensed the possibilities in this of an attempt at a separate peace with hated Germany; and when Razonoff, the Foreign Minister, resigned, and Sturmer quietly annexed the portfolio, the flames began to uprear their heads in earnest.

PROTOPOPOFF'S DUPLICITY. Protopopoff's appointment was fiercely resented because, aside from the fact that the rogressives regarded foim as an adventurer "an ambitious careerist" (a good expression, this), and a capitalist with innumerable private interests to serve, it was known that when in Stoekbilm he met, in conference, an attache of tire German Legation there. Denying, of course, that his meeting had any "arriere pensee" towards peace, he still admitted that he was planning to found a big Progressive paper, and the prophet in the New York Times solemnly assures us that the capital to back the enterprise was largely German. It seems, from this interesting writer's disclosures, tfoat a society was formed in Russia in 1914 "which aims to destroy all German influence and activity in Russia, its original purpose being to rid the country, both politically and economically, of the German yoke," and the disgusting feature of all this is that Protopopoff was a member of the society; and even after his appointment as Minister of the Interior the society decided to blacklist >him.

As the writer points out, one can easily see the moral importance of this incident, and how it would incense the people against the Government. When the Government added to its other follies by putting the immense and patriotic machinery of win-tke-war activities under the supervision of the police, who are empowered to interfere or entirely to interrupt the movement when they, choose, the people at last realised that the Premier pud his followers wished to obstruct as much as .possible the progress made bv the Russian people towards the attainment of a complete triumph over Prussianism. SYMPATHY WITH POLANrj. Finally the Polish question, with its wide appeal to the sympathetic Russian people who, on the whole, feel sincerely the injustice of Poland's treatment by Russia in the past, was raised, when the report was spread that 1 he Central Powers were planning 1 something with regard to .Poland, and the Russian people, as against the Russian Government, determined to frustrate aJiy Teutonic attempt'to fool Poland. When Austria-Hungary jointly captured Poland, some time ago, as a kingdom Russia saw with final definiteness that "it had been outraged its own Government," because it was known that Protopopoff, during his first audience with the Czar, advised the postponement of any action on Poland. Then the economic factor completed the crisis, and, as in the French Revolution, it soon became manifest that tho lfmits of fctusatt eaururaQce lie, after all,

in the human stomach. The Bread Crisis, they call it. Pricea had been soaring in Russia beyond belief. Many other article/ as well could not be had for any price'in certain parts '" the limpire, though quite easily purchasable in others, oboes, for instance, were a luxury even for the rich, and wooden sandals and rags replaced them. Tallow candles had to be substituted for kerosene, and sugar became a thing of the past. And then stalked with stealthy tread Famine- Tens of millions were starving, and these millions knew that Russia had a surplus of "hundreds of millions of bushels of grain." In the hands of speculators! and even some of the peasantry were holding back grain, hoping for higher prices. CHAOTIC FOOD SUPPLY, Idiotic tilings were done. The Government requisitioned, and, for instance, in the province of Viatka, forbade the export of any bread. Yet the province had 50,000,000 bushels of grain to spare. and as only 5,000,000 were requisitioned by the army, there were 45,000,000 left to rot in the barns at Viatka. The Cabinet was then called upon to introduce order, or resign, and at once attempted the difficult problem of fixing prices. This, of course, only increased the trouble, as those who had reserves of bread preferred not to sell it at all. Such are some types of human nature. Protopopoff then came forward with a characteristic suggestion, i.e., that a group of Petrograd bankers pnrcbase all the bread, and defiver it throughout the country. This pleasant idea of deliverance into tihe hands of a few bankers infuriated the people, and by last October the first reverberations of the storm began to be heard. The country now only awaited the opening of the Duma, and as the Duma is spokesman of Russian Democracy," and cannot, like the Press, be muzzled, the oi*ly way to keep the Duma quiet is to dissolve it; a-nd on the eve of the opening Kerenski, one of the leading Deputies, said that "never before was the Duma's opening preceded by such a stormy state of mind. Our immediate ta«ks are colossal. The demoralisation, of the Government is not a theoretical demand now, but. an urgent practical problem. It is no longer dictated by the mind, but by the stomach." And the limits of human endurance may begin in the miad, but they end in the stomach. Of such stuff are we made! We high and mighty superiors of the lower creation. And this is the sfcoocy of tihe Russiaa Resolution.