PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 11, 28 January 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

An explicit statement by Mn. Boxar Law that Sir William Roeurtson and Sir. Douglas Haio possess the full confidence of the Government should assist to silence tho criticism of the British High_ Command which has been heard in recent days. At all events the assurance will serve a useful purpose. There is no doubt that the tendency of this criticism to unsettle and disturb public opinion has been intensified by the currency of stories alleging friction between the members of the War Cabinet and the soldiers responsible for tho conduct of the war 'and a desire on the part oE Mr. Lloyd George to alter the personnel of the High .Command. Mr. Bonar Law's statement must bo taken to mean that these stories aro groundless. Some of them, indeed, as for instance the allegation mentioned to-day that a change in command was contemplated after the Battle of the Sommc, were discredited in ■ advance when Mn. - Lloyd George took occasion some months ago to express full confidence in tlu> leadership of Sir Douglas Haig. In Canada, the British AttorneyGeneral (Sir Suite) has declared not onl.v that Sir Douglas Haig and his associates enjoy the fullest confidence of the War Cabinet, but that they are given a freedom m the conduct of the campaign which is without precedent in history. These_ Ministerial statements should dispose of some at least of tho uneasy rumours that have been afloat during tho last few months. it * * * To-day's reports show that the aerial offensive in the 'Western theatre is developing apace. In tho region of the battlefrout British aviators have brought down sixteen enemy machines, and only one bntish aeroplane - suffered the _ same fate. At the same time bombing attacks arc being developed on a big scale not only upon the junctions occupied by the enemy close, behind his front, but far into enemy territory. Ono of the objectives reported to-day to have been successfully bombarded was Mannheim, an important Rhine town distant I*o miles in an air-line fromAancy. Various other railway junctions and munition centres in enemy territory, were dealt with in similar iashion. The British aerial offensive has already developed on a scale 'of considerable magnitude, and such events as aro reported to-day not only represent in themselves a greau • achievement, but are of good prof inise for the future.

* K * * A message stating that a congress of Soviet deputies has opened in Petrogradowith "dramatic enthusiasm and every sign of popular approval and confidence' can only be regarded as an attempt to stave off trouble by denying that it exists. The Bolsheviki interfered by violence and fraud in the elections to tlie Constituent Assembly, Dut even so found when it met that it was not prepared to give them the support and obedience they demanded. Having thrust the AssembJy into fchc background, tlicy are now apparently attempting to impart an air of legality to their usurpation and dictatorship by bringing the Soviet —a body of comparatively narrow constitution which is very far from representing the nation—into prominence as a substitute Parliament. The Soviet represents chiefly urban ers, soldiers, and sailors, and even these far from completely—this in a country where 80 per cent, of the population are peasants. But the Bolshevik leaders, having set aside the Constituent 'Assembly, evidently intend to put forward the Soviet as a representative body invested with authority to act on behalf of the nation. It is stated, for instance, that they will ask the Soviet to accept responsibility for the termination of negotiations with the Austro Germans at Brest Litovsk. The statement that this somewhat feeble attempt to invest an indefensible usurpation with a semblance of legality has awakened enthusiasm "and every sign of popular approval! and confidence" is quite incredible.

If it were discredited in no other way this palpable fabrication would be exposed at its true worth by the declaration of ICuylenko, the Bolshevik Commander-in-Chief, that all liberties must be_ set aside during the struggle with the bourgeoisie, and that: "We shall shrink from nothing—not even from bringing wholesale terror and woe to all attempting to cross our path. Ws will not stop until we have completely exterminated all enemies." Rulers basking in the sun of popular approval and confidence do not indulge in threats of wholesale massacre, and the declaration of the Bolshevik bravo carries a strong suggestion that he and those with whom he is associated feel that they arc on the eve of a struggle for' existence, and definitely supports news from other sources that

Ihe Bolsheviki are tottering amid the ruins they have helped (o create. A message from the Petrograd correspondent of tho Daily Chronicle is particularly interesting as affording plain evidence that the crazy structure the Bolsheviki have reared is crumbling at its foundations. Even the factory workers, this correspondent states, aro holding meetings hostile to tho usurpers. * * * * While the Bolshevik usurpation is manifestly threatcneci, there seems to be as little prospect as ever of the creation of a stablo-Govern-ment in the rear future. A definite struggle, between the Bolsheviki as an organised force and the adherents of 1110ro moderate parties might bring this event perceptibly nearer. But there is an evident danger that instead of being overthrown in a plainly-defined contest, the Bolshevik Administration may simply collapse in a welter of anarchy'. There is reason to fear that the 'Chronicle, correspondent points to a danger which is real and imminent when he says that Russia is threatened with blind and senseless anarchy which would overwhelm all parties. To a | 1-c at extent the reconstruction of Russia will in any case be an . affair of building on ruins, but it voujd bo optimistic to believe that the forces of destruction which have., already wrought such fearful havoc are nearing the point of exhaustion.

A report that a considerably faction amongst the Cossacks has inaugurated a movement hostile to General Kaledin, tho Cossack Headman, conveys very bad news if it is true. As it stands it implies that the Cossacks, thus far immune or nearly so, are becoming a prey to the disorders which are at once enervating and torturing a great part of the Russian population. But this report has presumably arrived through channels which are under Bolshevik control, and there is a distinct possibility that it distorts or exaggerates the facts. Though the. Cossacks are 'not at all points perfectly united, the best available information goes to show that as a mass they arc sharply divided from the disorderly elements of the Revolution, and that the division is likely to continue.

An interesting article dealing with the position of the Cossacks and their relation to the rest of the Russian population wa3 contributed to the Manchester Guardian a couple of months ago by Mn. M. Philips Piuce. He wrote of matters that were under his immediate observation at the time, and it may be added that he habitually makes every possible allowance for the Maximalists and other extremist factions in Russia. He observes j that in the early days of the Revolution the Cossacks astounded Russia with their loyalty to the people, but that as the Revolution passed its infancy and entered the stage where serious work and reconstruction were needed, one of the first of the territorial groups to show signs of uneasiness at the change were the Cossacks. In tho middle of <J imo last year a Cossack Council met in Pctrograd and passed resolutions on the land question and the war which resembled those of the Cadets rather than those of the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates. One reason explaining this attitude on the part of tho Cossacks was found by Mr. Price in the fact that in several of the Cossack districts land allotments average from 20 to 35 dessiatines (a dessiatine equals 2.7 acres) whilo iu some of the other Russian provinces the average allotment was only three dessiatinos before the Revolution, a,nd even now, when tho peasants have divided the landlords land, does not exceed seven. Over a great part of Russia the allotments are much smaller.

Mr. Price goes on to observe that the Cossacks, numbering seven millions, have great reserves of land, won by their ancestors as a reward for military service against the Tartars, and that their average allotment per man is much higher than that of the Russian peasant. ''The Tsar's Government," he adds, "used this privileged position to secure the support of the Cossacks against the Russian people. But their free nature revolted against this moral servitude, and they became at last ardent revolutionaries and republicans. _ Now, however, when the Revolution sets itself to solve the land question and aims to establish the principle of equal rights for all Russian subjects _ to the 'and, the traditions of a privileged caste begin to appear again, and as the first occupiers of large Asiatic territories the Cossacks now claim rights of local autonomy to protect their land interests. Thus the revolutionary idea of equality for all and privilege for none meets the Cossack idea of family traditions and territorial rights of ancestors."

It would, however, bo a mistake, j the correspondent goes on to ob-! serve, to suppose that the Cossacks j a.rc everywhere a united mass. "There is evidence," he states, "of i he beginnings a s l 3 'i c i' l ranks which may some day become a decisive factor in favour of the Revolution. Thousands ol' Cossacks from the Bon and Kuban, where the land allotments are not large and the population ever increasing, have gone to work in mine and factory or as labourers on farms. The Cossacks of Western Siberia also have come under the influence of the great agricultural and mining development of these regions, and are being gradually drawn closer to the Russian peasant and workman. Thus in many parts of the Cossack territories, where modern industries are beginning to spread, a Cossack bourgeois and proletariat class is gradually boing formed. The class struggle, in fact, has commenced on the same lines as in tho rest of Russia. At the present moment the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates in Petrograd has a special Cossack section, which draws to it the members of (he labouring Cossacks and those with little land. The latter arc by instinct in full sympathy with the revolutionary democracy. But they are at present only the minority. The g t eat majority of Cossacks still have large land reserves. Moreover, they have always lived under a strict military discipline, and their institutions, if democratic in form, • are military in spirit." _ Mr. Price concludes that such a division into classes as he describes will take time. On the facts he supplies it seems highly probable that at all | events a great majority of the Cossacks will hold aloof from the disorders of the Revolution until time has been given for a return to sanity and tho creation of an orderly Government in Russia.