BOLSHEVIK EFFRONTERY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 62, 7 December 1918, Page 6

BOLSHEVIK EFFRONTERY

Extraordinarily _ conflicting accounts have been given during the last day. or two of the state of affairs' iu fltussia, but soinc of them arc evidently wide of the facts. .For instance, : a Petrograd report that the Bolslieviki have ordered a general mobilisation and will have an army of from three to four million men next summer is not entitled- to serious consideration. The Bolslieviki arc not organisers, but social They are certainly incapable of raising and .organising an army of millions, and even if the feat were in their, power they would be unnblc to equip and supply such a force. It need not'be doubted that they are anxious to come to 'terms' with the. Allies -on the lines recently., suggested, by Litvinoff, , their envoy. in\London, but such a composition is,- of course, out of tho question. Litvinoff has the effrontery to declare that, helloes-not know what. the. Allies-- want■■-, from llussi a, but that llussia wants peace. The actual position is that the Bolshcviki, far' frp'ni 1 . being.' entitled'' to speak_ for Russia, arc its deadliest apd vilest 6nemi.es.- With all or practically all the legitimately constituted and representative governments which'exist in-Russia (he Allies are on. the friendliest terms, .and., thoy are actively-exerting themselves to assist these governments. The Bolslieviki arc , not Russia, but a gang of traitors and murderers who have -set' themselves to destroy her "as a nation. So many confused and ..contradictory' stories about llussia come over the cables that at times tho facts of the situation arc obscured, the, indictment of the Bolsheviki does not rest upon uncertain evidence. Allusion has frequently been made to the revelation of tho American Committee- on Public Information, which demon-strated-that the, leading members of the Bolshevik gang were in German pay. More recently the horrors of the Bolshevik regime were sst out by the American Secretary of St.-it<-(Mr. Lansing) in a .statement which deserves all possible prominence. It is embodied in a Note addressed by Mr.-Lansing to the United States Ambassadors and Ministers in Allied and neutral countries. It roads in part as follows:

This Govoniinent is in receipt of inl'orimition from reliable sources mvealiiijr that the peaceable IJussian citizens of Jloscoiv, Petrosrad, and other cities are sufl'oniiir from, an opej]ly.-;ivowe<l cuiiliaign, of mass terrorism, and are subject to wholesale executions. Tlionsaiids of nersons have been shot withtnit even a form of ■ trial; ill-'admini'stereil prisons are filled beyond capacity, and every night scores of Russian citizens are recklessly put lo don'lli, and irresponsible bands are venting their brutal passions in the daily massacre of untold innocents. In view of the earnest desire of the people of the, United States to befriend the Russian people and lend all possible assistance in the simple lo reconstruct their nation upon principles of democracy and self-government, and net in:,' Uiercforo solely in the interests of lli'o Russian people Ihomsclves, Iliis Governlnent feels that it cannot, be silent or re. I'rain from expressing ils swrow at (Ids existiiij; stillß of terrorism.

Mb. Lansing eonchidcs with an .'ippoal to all civilised nations to register their iibliorreneo of such liarhsirism us obtains in liussiii. Ewn Germany has sunpliiul no more astounding oxamnle of sli.-inicless effrontery, than thai of the perpetivilors of these ;lwfnl crimes in .'iitojjatiiiK the right in'spejiK , for linssi.i, and raise. ihe'uucsLion of iieacc with the Allies.