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Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16166, 21 March 1918, Page 6

The Bolsheviks' repudiation of the Russian National Debt, against which, , s j s reported to-day, the Allies have, ssucd a firm protest and warning, was lot, as might have beon supposed, a ;imple wiping out of all responsibility. \ccording to the "Manchester Guarlian's" special correspondent, Mr Philips "Price, the de.vea of repudiation was far from All loans and Treasury bonds hold l,y forjjen subjects anywhere were repudiated, ind also the holdings of thoso Russian iubjects who possessed more than 10,000 •oublcs of capital. People with less ;ha n that amount of capital vquld rp;eive interest on their'bonds or stock, j jut only at the. rate of 3 per cent., ex:ept in'the case of those possessing less ■han 1000 roubles, who would receive o jer cont. Workmen and peasants holdnrr 100 roubles' worth of stock or bonds ivoiild be bought out at 7» pc v cent, of he nominal value. Those holding from LOO tq GOO roubles' worth would receive : 0 per cent. Since the repudiation <lf oans would moan national financial iiiicide, the pnly people who could profit Tom this extraordinary scliemp of graduated repudiation woijld be the 'vorkmon with a small holding, apd they vouid have to rush very rapidly to the Treasury if they desired to save anything at fxli.

In the current i.ssue of the "World :> Work" the cipher message proved that Borlin greeted the sinking of the Lusitania is for the first tiroo mado public. Mr Rathom, the editor of the "Providence Journal," which exposed many German' plcts, publishes the I cipher, end explains how it was decodol. The message, which came from Nauen, was intercepted by tbp ' 'Journal s wireless station, apd read as follows:— From —Berlin Foreign Office. To—Botschaft. Washington: g(jg (44.-W) —Welt ninnteen-fifteen warns 175 29 1 stop 175 1 2 stop durch <>22 2 4 stop 19 7 18 stop LIX 11 3 4 5 6.

Nono of tlie codes previously unravelled would make the ir.e:sage intelligible, but onp of the "Journal's 1 ' agents, who had the German Embassy under observation, remembered having seen Prince Hatzfeldt studying the " 'World' Almanac" that' morning. The first words of the message J'Wc'lt'' (world), 1915, supplied the clue. The other numbers were taken to represent pages, lines, and words, and the "Almanac" being consulted the message revealed itself: "Warn Lusitania passenger (s) through Press not voyage across the Atlantic." ''Dwell" means "tjirough," and '«ptschaft" means "Lmbassy.

The .-most striking feature of the speech in which Mr "Wilson set forth the fourteen points of America's war aims was the friendly and encouraging tone of the references to Russia. According to the Washington correspandent ot tho '•Morning Post," this attention to Russia was inspired'by tho absence of anything of the kind from Mr Lloyd George's spcech of a taw days earlier. Mr Wilson, the correspondent says, was disappointed, and Mr Root was disi maycd. Mr Root thought the Prune Minister's spo:ch would do tho very thine everyone is so anxicus to avoid, and force Russia into the arms of Germany, and he communicated his fears to the President througliCo.onel Hons who came to Washington. At that time I>i". Wilson had begun to diaft his address, following his usual custom m such matters of first writing it m shorthand and then personally transcribing u on his typpwriter, :.nd it is quite c ear tint as h : s thome developed he saw that !» must samk'to Russia, that ho most ,11 — her to stand fast in her neu"loiin<l faith, and, haying escaped trom the iu f ocracy of Czardom, keep what she had and not sell into German slavery. His appeal, o c.u. c - also to the German there realiy be, but prininnlj it was to the Russian people."

English papers announce the retiremcnt°of Sir Alfred Keogli, who, as J Director-Gcnoral of Army Medical Ser- ( vices, did such great work in reorganising the Royal Army Medical Corps, and in bringing it up to the present high standard of efficiency. Sir Alfred Iveogh is retiring to his old post as General Executive Officer to the Imperial College of Scicnce and Technology. When war broke out in 1914 he vent | to Belgium and France as a Red Cross Commissioner. On his return to England he was asked to take up again the position of Dircctor-General of the Army .Medical Services, from which he had retired some years previously. He is now succeeded by Colonel Goodwin, who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps through the heroic days of Moiis and the Ma me and .Vpres, and who is spoken of in the highest terras. Born in Coy lon in 1871, he is the eldest son of a soldier-physician, Surgeon-Major J. Goodwin, and himself entered the Army Medical service in ISU3.

Wo hope that those of our readers who are disposed to think that they are badly off in New* Zealand, in consequence of the war, will read the letter from a former resident of Christchurch, which we print in another column, showing the privations which have to be endured in an ordinary mid-dle-class household in England at the present time. Tho writer hints that not only has the cost of living gone up, but the burden of taxation is heavy in England. As an illustration, it may be mentioned that a taxpayer in England in receipt of 2450 a year has to pay in direct taxation alone —income | tax and inhabited house duty—about ' £40 a year. It will be also seen from 1 the letter that so far tho women of New Zealand have dono littlo in the matter of war work in comparison with their sisters in England. .