NOTES OF THE DAY
There is an element of grim humour in the cabled news that GenEit'Ai; 'Hoffman, in addressing the Bavarian. Assembly, protested violently against the Allied peace terms. Of all the Huns who made an infamous reputation for themselves in tho war, Hoffman might have been ejected to hold his peace at this time. . His chief title to notoriety was established at BrestLitovsk, when the Bolshevik delegates, traitors as they were, felt bound to . protest against peace terms under which Germany _ proposed to enslave fifty-five million Slays, 'with the territories they inhabited. It was left to Hoffman to indicate as an all-sufficient justification for a colossal act of piracy that Russia was a conquered country.. That he now has tho effrontery to violently protest against terms in whici the Allies aro demanding no more off Germany than "restitution,. where that is possible, partial repartition, and guarantees for the fujiiiio casts new light upon the German character in fullyrounded development. l -
An not as yet officially confiruicd, that tho principal Allied Powers have succeeded in arranging peace between PolancLa,nd the Ukraine, promises a -material addition to other factors which tend to bring the regeneration of .Russia into the domain of practical endeavour. It is likely that the settlement, if it has been effected, involves the restoration to Poland of the Gholm district (in thp southeastern part ot what was Russian Poland), which was added to the Ukraine undir the treaty engineer-' ed by Germany early in 1918. As was observed in the cablegram which conveyed th/J news, the Polish and Ukrainian armies will now be free to act unitedly against the Bolsheviki.' At the same time the restoration' of settled conditions in the Ukraine, an enormous territory extending fruni the Pripet marshes to the Black Sea, and one of tho richest food-producing areas in Russia, would be in other ways of farreaching effect. In the brief period following on the Russian Revolution in which they were' free to shape their own destinies, the people of tho Ukraine attempted to create the machinery o'"an autonomous State, tn be linked up with the rest of Russia und-?.r a federal constitution. .It.was unclsr pressure of attack by the BolshoviJii that the Ukrainian Rada declared for separation from Russia, and sought German protection. As matters are now shaping, therefore, the dominant party in tho Ukraine should be well placed to co-operate freely with the other elements which are seeking to restore order in Russia, and a friendly understanding between Poland and the Ukraine, of course, will enormously strengthen the chain that is being diawn around the Bolsheviki.
will hato been seen from the' statement ho made at the Returned Soldiers' Association Conference, the Ministep. of Defekce has adopted the course in reference to retrospective allowances that was recommended in these columns a week or two ago. That is to say ho has' decided that retrospective allowances from the datr, at which soldiers embarked shall be paid next month, and that a further •payment, covering the period from attestation to embarkation, shall be made 'as soon as difficulties duo to imperfect records' can be overcome. Tho payments thus promised, relate to the allowances due to the wives of married soldiers, but the Ministor has furthf:; , promised that Cabinet will give full consideration to the question of retrospective allowances claimed irr respect of children. The poi"t be. makes that a number of men with' very largo families enlisted and served abroad, and that some such families are now in receipt of pensions, constitutes no valid reason for withholding retrospective allowances to children, and mo doubt the claim for these allowances will be strongly pressed. The Returned Soldiers' Association has no reason- to k< dissatisfied with the actual and prospective results .of its vigorous agitation on behalf of the dopendants of men who enlisted In tho early stages of the war.
Fnoii Paris comes news that Kejiensky and seven other members of the first Russian National Assembly, together with the officials of two-other Republican societies, arc formally protesting against tho recognition of • Kolckak■ or Allied intervention in E.nssia until '■■ it is asked for by a.Government willing to reconstitute tho National! Assembly. 'At its face value, this to some, extent detracts from an assurance cabled yesterday that all partics in Russia except the- Bolsheviki are. associated with the Kot.CHAK Government, the Archangel Governnicnt, and with Gknebai, Dekikkn, in the south, and arc pledged to summon a Constituent Assembly as early as possiHe. This assurance, however, is no doubt in reply to tho protest of Keren'skv and his associates, an-I there is no apparent reason to doubt that it states the position with substantial accuracy. Kebensky is a fallen idol. There may be some ground for difference of opinion regarding tho extent to which his weakness and vacillation payed tho way for the _ frightful calamities of the Bolshevik regime, but he is Jitlilo enough entitled to protest againso recognition; of the men who have done something towards reconstructing' the,, nation which fell to pieces in his hands. Complete -harmony amongst the anti-Bolshevik forces in Russia is an impossible aspiration for the time being, but if, a? was stated recently, the'various sectional Governments, induding the powerful military dictatorship, with its headquarters at Omsk, which is. presided over by AdmiHAi; KurCHAK,..- are un itcdly pledged to.' convoke /sv Constituent Assembly as soon us possible, it is unquestionably in tho interests' of
Russia thai/ (lie 'Allies should give them all jj:'aclicab!.o countcnaneo unci support;.
Although i , ; has been carried oul. with deliberation iuid in less adventurous circunidances 'ban those which were -faced by Hawker iuul 'Grikvr in their gallant; but unsuccessful attcnii'l' ii.» fly fvom jNcw'foiindlaiid to'lreland, Mio comple(ion of .a'trans-Atlantic flight by the. American seaplane "N. 0.1 is in itself a noteworthy nehioyemont. A survey of the conditions in which it was accomplished, however, cmjih.y fiises the fact that there arc big problems yet to bo solved before aeroplane flights across the Atlantic can be, undertaken with ease and a reasonable approach to certainty. The successful seaplane is one of four which koo ,<>ut to iiiako. the journey, its lone. delay. at the Azores'was in-part; accounted for !W its being detailed to assist in. the. search' for its missing consorts, tint naval co-operation on,an elaborate scale was regarded as essential, particularly on the stage fironi the Azores to Lisbon. Obviously, the. crossing by N.C.4 in the conditions in which it was effected discloses no 'immediate opening , for commercial exploitation of. the saino air-route. Such a development, presumably, must await the construction of machines offering'a much greater margin of .safety and capable .of dispensing with the_ co-operation of uaval or othgr ships.
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Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 211, 31 May 1919, Page 6
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1,111NOTES OF THE DAY Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 211, 31 May 1919, Page 6
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