DROPPING THE MASK

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 72, 18 December 1917, Page 5

DROPPING THE MASK

EX-TSAR'S ESCAPE PROBABLE.

GERMAN ASPIRATIONS FOR NEW TERRITORY

WATCHING DISMEMBERED RUSSIA

Amsterdam, December 16.

Dr. Streseniann, the National Liberal Leader, in a speech, said, in referring to tho negotiations with Russia, that Gormauy should conduct the negotiations as a military conqueror. Now that Russia was dissolving into separate parts, there could not be any question of Russia's territorial integrity. The old Russia was gone, and Germany was entitled to harvest the reward of her conquests.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. ,

ARMISTICE TREATY SIGNED

OPERATIONS SUSPENDED TILL JANUARY M

(Rcc. December 17, 5.5 p.m.) London, December 16.

A wireless Russian official report states:—"General Krylonko lias issued t a proclamation to the eft'eot that tho Armistice Treaty has been signed. Ho proposes to cease all military operations until the full text of the Treaty has been received. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.-Router. • . A German ollicinl report states:—"An armistice with' the Russians was signed at Brest Litovsk yesterday. It will begin on Dccomber 17, I'nd ends on January 14. Unless a week's notice he given the armistice will wmtinuo automatically, and will extend over all the land, ,air, and nav.y forces of tho common fronts. Peace negotiations will begin immediately.- - •Aus.N.Z. Cablo Assn.-Reuter.

POLITICAL ANARCHY AT THE CAPITAL TAURIDA PALACE SEIZED BY THE RED GUARDS. Potrograd, December 16. Tho Red Guards have seized tho Tnurida Palace, and aro preventing deputies and officials from entering. The Bolsheviks hayo decreed tho aholition of_ all jnilitoy title and decorations, tho confiscation of savings banks and privates capital, tho disestablishment of tho Church, and tho abolition of the Holy Syiiod.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. DELEGATES REFUSED ADMITTANCE TO ASSEMBLY CHAMBER. London, December 16. The "Daily Chronicle's" correspondent at Petrograd states that twenty Social Revolutionary Delegates, finding that soldiers prohibited their entrance to tho debating chamber of tho Constituent Assembly, held !i meeting in tho library. An officer ordered them out, declaring that all meetings were illegal until the Assembly was allowed to meet. AVhen tho delegates .refused, sailors, armed with bayonets and cutlasses, removed them. m ho Bolsheviks have- concentrated eight thousand troops in the vicinity of the Taurida Palace.—Aus.-N-Z. Cable Assn.

EX-TSAR AND FAMILY IN DANGER

UNCONFIRMED REPORT OF THEIR ESCAPE,

Petrograd, December 16. A meeting of tho Ismailov and Potrograd Regiments resolved on t\e immediate removal of the ex-Tsar, with Princess Alice and the family, to Kronstadt or the fortress of ':t. Peter and St. Paul, and tho cancellation of all their privileges. While the meeting was in progress a report was oirculated that the ex-Tsar has escaped, but the roport is unconfirmed.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

(R-ec. December 17, 11.30 p.m.) Petrograd, December 1". Tile report of the escape cf tho ox-Tsar is officially denied. ' A telegram from Nicolaieff states tnat tKo Maximalist troops at Odessa aftaclfecl the Ukrainian Parliament, but tho Ukrainian troops drove \hom off. Tile majority of tho sailors in the Mack Sea Pleot havo joined the Ukrainians.—Reuter.

(Rec. December 17, 10.35 p.m.) London, December 17. The "Daily Chronicle's" Petrocrad correspondent says that the oxTsar's escape is probablo. The Bolshevik Government has dispatched five hundred sailors to Chelyabinsk, in Siberia, for the purpose of preventing the ex-Tsar from joining General Dutoff, who commands tho anti-Bolshevik troops at Orenburg.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.