NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16254, 3 July 1918, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The sources from which information dribbles through from Russia are !-o unreliable thafall news as to happenings in that country must be received with caution, not to say suspicion. In the case of statements by the Wolf Press Agency, a notoriously mendacious German organisation, they may be disbelieved at once. As matters stand, it may be true that Korniloff has captured Moscow and overthrown the Bolshevik Government, and that Lenin and Trotsky _ have fled northwards to the Murnian coast. Korniloff, of course, was dead, according to rumour, months ago, and whether r.nat. report or the contradiction that soon followed it, was corrcct, it is impossible to say. ' If he is alive there is nothing wildly improbable in his* i e- 1 ported action or its consequences. A ( distinct and strong anti-Bolshevik movement has been "rowing in Russia for months past, and the gradual advance of the German invaders on Petrograd and towards Moscow has tended to strengthen the counter-revolutionary party. The conditions prevailing in "Russia during this year have no doubt afforded fertile ground for the growtn of hostility to the Bolsheviks, whose caricature of governmeut has j produced so many of the ills from which Russia suffers. Months ago Dr. Harold Williams declared that Pctrograd was becoming a desert. Practically the only traffic in the streets was that of vehicles carrying the household goods of residents evacuating the city. The Government - had gone to Moscow. Food was scarce, and (-"ooplo were living from hand to mouth, for supply-trains came in only irregularly. The bread ration had been reduced to two ounces daily—"and such bread. Its principal ingredient appears to i.e straw, its colour varies between khaki, green j and brown."

Outside tho cities, Lenin land legislation and' revolutionary propaganda, working hand in hand, were producing the most disastrous consequences. In effect, they were reducible to the simple advice to the peasants, "Help yourselves.," "The results have been to break up the large estates, with a consequent, return to the more primitive methods of _ cultivation, struggles between rival villages and between rival inhabitants of the sarr.e village, nnd wholesale insecurity. This, added to the abnormal condition of the markets and the collapse of the transport system, means a tremendous diminution in production. Seed grain is practically unobtainable in the northern and north-western provinces. Russia cannot avoid at least one terrible year of plague and famine.

It seems a pity that some of our Now Zealand Socialists of the extreme typo cannot be transported to Itussia for a month or two, so as to learn at first hand something of the workings of unfettered Socialism. One Australian Socialist, a Russian, and a valued settier, has had that experience, and wants no more. He is a man of middle ace, who was educated at a Russian University, and exiled on account of his socialistic* opinions. When the revolution occurred he returned to Russia, expecting apparently to find the millennium in lull swing. And this is how lie writes to a friend in Queensland"l am in the enemy s camp. My worst forebodings have turned to facts, and these are giving place to rthat seems to be a horrible nightmare. It began in the same way as it was in Queensland during federal elections before I left bv hooting Liberals. It ends by tearing them to pieces. Tho worst descrit> tion of events in Russia pales before the reality. In no period of autocracy was Russia subjected to such callous brutality as she is now in the reign of Socialism. Liberals and even modorato Socialistic papers are suppressed. J. hose which manage to*co'me out into the streets are snatched from the news sellers and readers, lind ai'e torn to pieces and burned. People suspected cf Liberalism are arrested. Liberals caught in the act of condemning Socialists regime are torn to pieces by the ruthless mob of beasts. In the daytime passers-by are stopped by bands of robbers, and stripped of all they have on—in th© main streets of the biz towns."

Regarding the state of affairs in the country this disillusioned Russian Socialist says: "The stage of inducing the farmers to sell at the price fixed by the Socialists is passed. Bands of peaBants and deserters attack homesteads, kill owners, rob everything, and burn buildings. Everything which is left land, woods,, stock, machinery, and produce—is taken possession of by 'land committees,' consisting mostly of devil-may-care hoodlums, to whom resistance is useless. The holdings of over 150 acres are taken,over. The 100 acres will have their turn next/ Awful, catting shame in my heart 1 I had such hopes of better lifq for the country, such bold, ambitious plans of democratic construction. All gone down, never to be raised. Democracy proved to be a vile, loathsome herd of bloodthirsty hooligans, hurrying to have their day, never caring what follows next. Russia is not an autocratio country at present: she is not a despop tic one. No language has a term to be applied to the state in which she is now, unless that is 'socialistic.' The helplessness of a man here is maddening. The horror of. it drives hundreds to suicide."

Ityimours which are alleged to have reached Vienna state' that the counter-revolution is a monarchal movement. Two months ago reports as to tho coming of Czarism, with the Czarevitch on the throne, supported by the Grand Duke Michael as Regent, were current in Europe, and •» were generally disbelieved. There were vague rumours just prior to Kerensky's flight that he was leagued with" those who, as an alternative to "undiluted Bolshevism, were desirous of restoring the monarchy, and from time to time the Bolsheviks have murdered or caused the flight from Russia of various persons 'suspected of being connected with the plot. How far its success, if it exists at all, would benefit Russia in the long run is a moot point. In some quarters the monarchist party are said to be inspired by Germany, and in that case the consequence of their success would be to hand over Russia to Germany. The latter would no doubt

restore order to the land, but Russia's independence would vanish. Then, again, there are those who accuse the Bolsheviks of being Germany's agents, whose every action has aided the German penetratipn of Russia. The fact that Germany -has now the upper band in Finland, that she has occupied the Ukraine, that Roumania was made bankrupt and then crushed, and that Germany's ally, Turkey, was allowed to take the Black Sea ports, the oil country of Baku, and Armenia—all these circumstances, in whic'a Lenin and Trotsky played a part, are quoted as proof that thev have acted throughout as Germany dictated. If that is so, then the Bolshevist opposition to the treaty of Brest Litovsk, aiid to Germany's advance into Russia must be regarded merely as a sham, and the Russian tangle becomes still more involved.