PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3189, 13 September 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

To-day's messages dealing with Russia disclose a state of developing civil war, though at timo of writing no actual conflict is reported between tho forces controlled by M., Kerensky and those of General Kornii.oef. It is now quite plain that in denouncing General Xorniloff as a, traitor M. Kerensky "was not disposing of a subordinate, but challenging a rival authority; _ A3 matters are developing a military contest' for supremacy • seems to be inevitable, and the outlook is all. tha more gloomy since both factions/apparently control a considerable body of force. Tho Provisional Government has resigned, and M. Kerensky seems to. bo exercising' dictatorial powers in Pctrograd. Rumours that ho had been murdered are discredited by later reports of his continued activities. He claims that he is assured of support from Moscow, and has force enough 'to quell all possible disorders in tho capital, and it is'stated, also that he is supported by the officers and men of tho Baltic Fleet. Meantime it is reported that General Korniloff is moving troops on Petrograd, with a viow to besieging the city. As a whole these are conditions .which threaten to confer a golden opportunity on the enemy, and at present the only redeeming feature in the situation is that Germany is now "-0 heavily involved in tho Western theatre that she is bound to find the extended occupation of Russian territory a matter of difficulty even in the most favourable as regards an ineffective resistance on tho part of tho Russian armies.

M. Marcel Hutin, who is noted for' his ability' and penetration in getting at the kernel of an obscure and complex situation, is quoted today as stating that M. Kerensky's shifting policy is prejudicial to his cause} and that unless General Korniloff is given dictatorial powers Russia will be,lost. It seems prohable that'll. Hutin is right in his opinion that nothing but tho establishment of a military dictatorship will enable Russia to surmount her present difficulties, but all that is definitely established meantime _is that a split has occurred . which threatens to lead to disastrous consoquences. A late message conveys a proclamation by M. Kerensky, in which ho.asserts in effect that he is receiving promisos of an overwhelming body of support from_ the armies, the country, and public organisations, and that General Korniloff is backed only by small detachments which have been brought to a halt in their advance on Petrograd. This account of the situation is almost certainly exaggerated and distorted. For instance, Prince Lvoff, who resumed his place at the head of the powerful and influential Union of tho Zemstvos on retiring from 1 the Provisional Government, is shown to. bo acting' with General Korniloff. It seems more likely, also, that the Cossacks, a powerful and compact military and political body, will support those who aim at a military dictatorship as a step to the restoration of order and efficiency than that they will make common cause with the Socialists who constitute the main body of M. Kerensky's following.

It lias a bearing upon the critical situation now developing that much that has happened and originated in Petrograd since the Involution is asserted by many observers to have been viewed with absolute disfavour in other parts of Russia. One English correspondent, writing on this subject recently, declared that tho attitude of provincial Russia towards visitors from Petrograd was already unmistakable. "The peasantry," he added, "boycott them, and as far as possible prevent them from procuring even the neces : saries of life. To the hatred which Russia has nursed for two centuries against tho northern capital as the specially-created home of despotic rule has succeeded the more deadly hatred of Petrograd-as the traitor to the Russian name, the venal fraterniscr with nations which are the common foe and the base trafficker in national honour. Tho Cossacks of All the Russias have spoken with no uncertain voice in> Petrograd itself. And the Cossacks are tho inheritors of the ancient liberties of Muscovy, which two centuries of despotic rule has not wholly wrested from them. At Kicff, the Ukraine of Little Russia, another 'liberty-loving section of All the Russias, has cast off Petrograd and all its works. Tho Mussulmans of Russia havo summoned at Moscow their own Congress. The Siberians are stirring in the same centrifugal sense; and these examples cannot fail to beget othors of less note. The nation increasingly looks towards Moscow, and the moment tho Provi-

Kional Government can mako good its escape from doomed Petrograd the voice of Russia will bo heard with a clear note onco again." Somo prospects are now raised that tho seat of Government may 1)0 transferred from Petrograd to Moscow, but in lesß auspicious circumstances than the correspondent quoted had in mind;

The Swedish reply to tho Allies on the subject of th~o Argentine scandal is far from being satisfactory. It does not deny that messages intended, as Herr Branting put it, to assist the amiable business . of marking down sjdps for destruction, were passed through Stockholm to Borlin, but it pretends that th-i contents of the" code messages in question were unknown to tho Swedish Govornment. This is really beside tho point. The charge mado is that tho Swedish Government transmitted as its own German messages 'in furtherance 'of the submarine campaign, and this charge has not been answered. The Swedish reply confirms an impression that the "charge does not admit an effective answer.