RUSSIA FROM WITHIN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 310, 19 September 1918, Page 5

RUSSIA FROM WITHIN

' A PICTURE OF CHAOS WILL SHE BECOME A GREATER GERMANY? "Compared with what is going to happen in Russia, the French Revolution was a kindergarten. The men who wear whito collars are now hiding, in cellars, and it means certain death for them to come out. All is chaos. It ie tho strugglo for individual liberty after centuries of repression—a struggle generated by bruto nature without the controlling influence of tho higher instincts which aro governed by mental elovation. Soven-tenths of the Russjau population',can neither read nor write.. Their ignorance is appalling. With tho yoko removed suddenly and dramatically, they have simply gono mod." Tho speaker was Mr. 11. W. J. llussoll, an 'American by birth, but a. cosmopolitan hy nature, who , has lived eight-years in Petrograd, i and speaks R-Hssian fluently. Ho l< j>t w^ , ' 4 .1 vi- 51 "-" in 'Wellington. Willi his wife, paying a possi of soldiers well,for their protec-! tion, they were ablo to make an exit from tho Russian turmoil via (Siberia last November. Mr. Russell has beon engaged in commercial pursuits in Russia, arid also acted (in an advisory capacity) , to tho Russian Govern;. ■■■_ •■ jn respeot to ordnance transportation in tho early stages of tho war. So Little Hope. ■ "I. speak Russian," said Mr. Russell to , a Dominion reporter on Saturday at the Midland Hotel, "and that great country has always been very dear-tome." I have lived thero and Jiave known tho people for many years, Mid their tragedy has to a great extent Tieen mine. I was the European representative of the Studebaker Corporation, and in that capacity I camo'into contact,-more or less, with all the warring nations, but particularly Russia, and was ablo to be of some little sorvioe to" them so long as they wero lighting as an ally. Tlio terrific upheaval is pitiful." Is thero any hope for them?. "No intelligent person,.knowing what I know, ami seeing what I have seen, could say 'Yes. , Russia to-day is a negligible—indeed a negative—quantity. •As far as this war is concerned she is right out of it. Don't build any ]iopes on tho Czecho-Slovaks. Thoy are simply a faction, and areoverybit as had, unruly, and as ungovcrned as the •Bolshevists.' " ,' ; • Trio First Revolution. "We ,wei'c them during tho first revolution and remained there—in Petrograd—right up to the movement when 1 decided that wo could remain no longer in safety. My sympathies wero with tho loyalists, and frs&i my knowledge of the country and the people, I had been more or loss an unofficial adviser., For that reason thoro came a. timo when it was imperative that niy wife and I should got out as soon as possible. I struck trouble during' the verj first upheaval. Someono •threw np a. window in tho build ing in which wo woro staying, and shot a sol(licr across tho street. The revolutionaries niado their way into the nlaco and gave us fifteen minutes to got out or give up tho murderer. We got out. I had -ho desire to sen just how high that building was likely to fly. They were laying sticks of dynamite about tho floor before our eyes. We took jpfttge in a friend's house that night. They got an old Russian General after we left and executed him. After that fthey left tho building, and we returned the next- day. We were the only foreigners disturbed during that revolution. : •

"The Bolshevik!,represent, about 5 per cent, of the population of Russia, : Irat they represent 100 per cent, of the gun-power. They have all the instruments of terrorisation in their hands, and the rest of tho people are helpless under their domination. Where Enj»- , land_ mid America, made the mistake was.Hi not jumping into affairs right on top of the first revolution. I was at the time directing a big movement in 'America which had at heart the interests of the Russian civil pODulation. Edison, Maxim, and the Strausses were concerned in the idea. My sugi gestion was that we should send 'ns many Russians as possible who had succeeded in America to their own country, so that they'might preach the gospel of salvation that .was .wait-. for them at the hands of tho Allies. There were dozens of men only ■too willing to go, but unfortunately nothing came of the suggestion in Amer-! ica or England. That was a pity." It might have meant much in tho light of events that have followed." .' ■ Soap-box Orators. "The men.who did go back to' Russia were those who bad Been practice ally thrown out of the Allied countries,': and who were lucky to get back with a passport. ' These were soap-bos orators, who just got into the ferment arid boosted it along for their own fell purposes. We lost our chance. The average Russian to-day regards the • American or Englishman as an interested capitalist, whoso sole aim and endeavour is to exploit the country at the expense of the native. We can thank cur friends of the soap-box for that. "No, it is now altogether hopeless. Soventy-three per. cent, of tho huge, population aro illiterates. . For years they have been kicked on the shins, slapped on tho face, and generally maltreated into a blind obedience to a certain order of things: Now the men who .wero treated as animals are getting , back a. bit of their i own from their former masters, and getting interestin blood. . Tho "Brotherhood" System, . "Towards the end of my stay tho 'brotherhood' movement wa3 in full 'swing. If I went to step into my sleigh at tho door the nearest tramp Arould step in with me, with the casual remark that he was going the same way. It would have boon worse than ! foliy for me to have resisted. 'Every man is as good as another,' was the , ' universal cry, mid they went the wholo ]iog. I remember one engine-driver who got fed up with driving his train, jind left it standing in the. middle of a village station, without oven saying good-bye to the puzzled passengers. On Another train the fireman and driver •had'a row,' and the former killed the latter with his coal-pick between stations: That was the extent to which tho Brotherhood movement went. "One of these days the Russians may sort themselves out. But as far as I can seo that is not likely to arise until Bomo man arrives who is strong enough * to make himself absolute dictator. Provided sucli n man can be found —one rim will stop at nothing in pursuit of a definite policy— then there will fie a chance for llussia. to realise her desfci'iy. amongst the other peoples in the world. The Menace. "In tho meantime thn menace to the wholo world, through Russia, is_ Germany. If Germany can take this incoherent mass ,of blood-dyed peoples and mould it in her iron-fisted way to her will —I say, if Germany can do so and at the same time come to nwuu sort of peace terms with the Allies, then sho wins the war! That is Urn menace. Germany must be utterly crushed —crushed without any maudlin sentiment, or through her possiblo domination of Russia (which country, I 1 see, lias already paid the first instalment of her war indemnity), sho will become the greatest empire tho world has pfer seen, and will for GTor bo

more than a threat to England a supremacy in India, the Persian Gulf, and tho Suez Canal zone, whilst, through Siberia, she would reach out for posaossions in the Pacific. I honestly belie7o that Germany realises to-day that her causo on the Western front is hopeless, and that at tho same time the dreams o? the Pan-'Germanists are coining true L the East—Russia! For that roason I do not agreo with General Maurice that we should regard our activities ; n tho East as side issues of no importance In tho light of German ntcaression in Russia it would be folly not to realiso that we must keep pegging away thero whilst we crush the German armies in the West.