WHY WE ARE IN RUSSIA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 156, 27 March 1919, Page 5

WHY WE ARE IN RUSSIA

Lord Milncr has sent the following reply to ii letter received from a correspondent:— The iciison why Allied, not merely British forces—indeed the British are only ii small proportion of the total Allied troops—were sent to Russia is that th.i Uolsheviki, whatever .their ultimateobject, were, in fact, (insisting our enemies in every possible way. It was owing to their action that hundreds of thousands of German troops were let loose to hurl thimsi'lves against our men on the Western front. It was owing. to their betrayal that Rumania, with all its rich resources in grain and oil, fell into tho hands of tho Germans. It was they who handed • over tho Black Sea Fleet, to tho Germans and who treacherously attacked the Czechoslovaks when the latter only desired to get out of Russia in order to fight, for the freedom of their own country in Europe. Tho Allies, every one of them, were most anxious to avoid interference in Russia. But it was an obligation of honour to save the Czecho-Slovaks, and it was a military necessity of tho most urgent kind to prevent those vast portions of Russia which were struggling to escape tho tyranny of the Bolslieviki I from being overrun by them and so thrown open a≤ a source of supply to the enemy, i sa.y nothing of the enormous quantities of military stores, the property of the Allies, which-were lying at Archangel and Vladivostok and which wero in course of being appropriated by the Bolslieviki and transferred to tho Gei mans till the 'Allied occupation put an end to tho process. And this, intervention was successful. The rot was stopped. The Czeeho-Slovaks were saved from destruction. Tho resources of : Siberia and South-Eastern Russia were I denied to the enemy. The northern ports ■ of European Russia were prevented from becoming bases for Gorman submarines from winch our Jforlh Sea barrage could havis been turned. These were important achievements and contributed materially to the defeat of Germany. I say nothing of the fact that a vast portion of Uifi earth's surface and millions of people friendly to the Allipj have been spared the unspeakable terrors of Bolshevik But in ttio course of this Allied intervention thousands of Russians tave taken up arms and fought on the side of the I Allies. How can we, simply because our cwn immediate purposes have been served come away and leave them to the tender mercies of their and our enemies, before they hnvo had time to arm, train, and organise so as to be. strong enough to defend themselves? It would be an abominable- betrayal, contrary to every British instinct of honour and humanity. You may be quite sure that the last thing tho Government desires is to leavo British soldiers in Russia a day longer than is necessary to discharge the moral obligations we have incurred. And that, T believe, is tho guiding principle 'of nil the Allies. Nor <io 1 inysoll' think that the tiino when wo can withdraw without disastrous consequences is necessarily distant. But this is a case in which tinmore haste may bo the less speed. If the Allies were all to scramble out of Russia at once, this result would almost certainly bo that the barbarism which at present reigns in a part only of that, country would spread over the whole of it including the vast regions of Northern and Central Asia which were included in tho dominion of the Tsare. The ultimate consequences of such a disaster cannot be foreseen. But they would assuredly involve a far greater strain on the resources of the British Empire than our present commitments.