PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 100, 21 January 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

At time of writing there is no mention of any authoritative comment upon the alarmist statement ;by Mr. J. M. Hogge, M.P., which is said to have occasioned a secret session of the House of Commons. From the fact that tho Man-Power Bill passed its second reading without a division after the secret session it would appear, however, that the House did not tako Mit. Hodge's outburst very seriously. It is obviously unlikely that any private member would be in exclusive possession of information warranting such an indictment of tho Government as was uttered by Mr. Hogge. His central contention—that the Government was fooling the HouseCommons and the public by bringing down inadequate proposals —receives little enough support from the known facts of tho Government's programme relating to man-power and the speech delivered by Mr. Lloyd George before trades union representatives, which is reported at some length to-day. *'# # *

The Bolsboviki, it is reported today, are making their preparations for tho meeting of the Constituent Assembly, but the preparations aro remarkably different from thosewhich would be made by a provisional authority desirous of obtaining a clear and unfettered expression of the national will. Machineguns at tho pjace of meeting in Petrograd, and naval craft commanding the city, are leading features in the arrangements made by the Bolsheviki for the reception pi tho national representatives, and all the rest is in keeping. Lenin and his friends are in fact attempting to maintain their power by German methods of brute force. A demand for an "honest" and speedy gathering of the Constituent Assembly was a big factor amongst those which made their usurpation possiblo, ,but they havo made it plain except to those who will not see that they arc a lawless minority determined to oppose every possible obstacle- to the self-determination of the Russian people. The attitude of the Bolsheviki was defined for practical purposes many weeks ago, and no surprise is sprung in the demands with which they propose to confront tho Constituent Assembly. It is rather surprising, however, that they have not found some more artful method of maintaining their usurpation than an open appeal to armed force. As long ago as early December fears were expressed in manifestoes issued by most of the non-Bolshevik Socialist bodies that the Bolsheviki would dissolve the Constituent Assembly if they were opposed therein by a majority. An Associated Press correspondent at Petrograd reported at that time that the central committees of most of tho Socialist organisations and Peasants' Deputies had issued an address to the people in which thoy declared that only the' immediate conclusion of poacc could save Russia from political and economic ruin and civil war, but added that tho peace must be general and not separate, and denounced the separate armistice concluded by the Bolsheviki as "only the affair of a party of usurpers, the responsibility for which rests exclusively upon them." I

Precisely what section or proportion of the Russian people is represented in the Soviet is doubtful, but some time ago it was stated by the London correspondent of the Soviot organ hvestia that about half tho members of the Soviet were directly elected representatives oi the- munition works, and that the other half was made up of soldiers directly elected by the troops. All the factory employees of every description in Bussia number less than one-tenth of the population, and o. c •these, of course, only a percentage aro, or were, engaged in making munitions. The Executive Council of tho Soviet has been summed, up as "a self-constituted organisation of idealists, theorists, anarchists, and syndicalists, who aro largely of tho international Jow type, who have hardly any working men or soldiers among them, and some of whom are known to be in German pay." It is this organisation—no doubt rather tho executive than its rank and file membership—that the Bolshovik leaders profess to regard as endowed with an authority superior to that of the' Constituent Assembly. Ono faintly hopo.ful feature of the situation is that the Bolsheviki have apparently failed to exercise such control over the elections to the Constituent Assembly as to make them confident of bending it to their will. By arresting election committees and in other ways thev have endeavoured to ensure the election of candidates of their own kidney, but evidently in spite of these precautions they aro doubtful of their ability to dominate- the Assembly by peaceable methods when it meots. -

This in itself indicates that the Boh.huviki arc in imminent danger of being overthrown, but the frightful misfortunes they have brought upon .Russia oppose tremendous obstacles to tho restoration of orderly government. One correspondent observes to-day that if starvation comes the masses will rend the Government As information stands starvation has already come or is in near prospect over a considerable part of Russia. A gospel of class hatred and plunder has borne its inevitable fvuit in economic chaos and famine, and obviously there is much In these conditions to deter any moderate party or coalition of parties from assuming office and responsibility. There is a good deal in existing circumstances to suggest that the moderate leaders who arc consolidating their power in Southern Russia have adopted tho policy of leaving tho Bolsheviki to reap where they have sown, and that Russia must suffer even more terrible misfortunes than she is now enduring before any hopeful attempt can be made to restore order.

Ii is now definitely established that the British hospital ship Rewa was torpedoed, and another foul crime is added accordingly to Germany's record. Of late the German Government has resumed its policy of concocting false charges of the misuse of British hospital ships, but these charges have on every occasion been conclusively refuted, and can only be intended for the edification of German and proGerman circles. The difficulty nowadays is not to sheet home Germany's crimes, but to find a law or canon of civilised warfare which she has not flagrantly and infamously violated. A crime which has much in common with her destruction of hospital ships is the torpedoing of vessels carrying supplies for the relief of the unfortunate Belgian population living under German thrall. This, as an American writer pointed out recently, is an act from which Germany could not hope to profit in a military sense, and the only result of which could be the starvation and doath of hundreds of women and children for whom Germany, under' every code of decency, had made herself responsible. "Germany," he adds, "pledged herself to respect tho Belgian relief ehip's. She specified tho route by which these ships should sail and the marking which they should carry. The instructions given were meticulously followed, but to no avail. .The Commission for Relief in Belgium has now published a list of ships deliberately sunk or fired upon without warning, contrary to the pledged word of Germany. All of the so ships bore the. marking of the Belgian Commission and carried safe-conduct •for passage from the German Government. Sinco February 28 threo ships, it was announced, have- arrived safely in Belgium and five Have been sunk. The proportion of threo to five probably represents a percentage of ships which escaped through luck rather than the percentage of honour remaining in tho German military mind."