REALITIES OF BOLSHEVISM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 195, 13 May 1919, Page 5

REALITIES OF BOLSHEVISM

■ j— : In a letter to "The Times" (London), 11. Park Gcff writes:— 1 ' . I had the pleasure of meeting Mr: A. F. Trepoff firing his stay in London nn his way .from 'Finland to-'Paris. As volir readers are proba'bly aware, Mr. Trepoff- was. the Ktissian Prime Minister who.fell from power in 1910, when lie lefused to continue in office while the impostor monk,' Rasputin, and his proGerrnan clique, remained in favour. Mr. •Trepoff has, of course, retired from practical politics, but his utterances stillcarry the greatest weight for all who have any real knowledge of Russian affairs. His tale, of his personal experiences before leaving Petrogrod and the sufferings there now. is indeed a terrible one. He related the usual string of stories of atrocities which we seem to have read scattered through the Press at various intervals, but he told me one new fact ' that was more -horrible than any I have yet heard. He related how the Chinese Legions, who perform the elocutions at 1)0 roubles a head to enable the Terrorists fa> hold tlieh' own, are selling the flesh ' of their victims for human consumption, parsing it off as veal, at fabulous prices. None of the'n stories, however, brought home to me, living well in the 01 niir tight little island, the realities of ' Bolshevism so much ns liia story of the death of my friend, thn Adjutant of the Lite Tsar, Admiral Yessclkin. The execution of Admiral Vesselkin was announced in the Petrograd-papers of December .23. According to the official announcement, he was shot for'bsing a shareholder of an Anglo-Russian Murni.'m Envelopment concern. ; Mr. Trepoff made one very signifinniit statement to the. effect 'that Germnn influence, ■ activities, and agitation in Finland were stronger to-day than they had ever bc.?n. He expressed his extreme surprise that. Great Britain had no representatives in Finland copablo of copinc with the situation. When I asked him what.he considered to be'the hest. manner of stamping out tho Bolshevik movement in. Russia, he said that to make stores of food in Finland for Petrograd. and openly to promise to feed Petrograd as soon as General Judenitsch should establi'h '<nv and ordor t.heie, would do a great deal towards settling this question most effectually. , It is simply a case of food versus Bolshevism, and the man or ally who enn fee'l Petrograd can rule Petrograd, which is'the key to the situation, and tho source of control and power throughout Russia.