IN FREEDOM'S CAUSE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 226, 18 June 1919, Page 5

IN FREEDOM'S CAUSE

LITHUANIA'S GALLANT STRUGGLE

PEASANT HEROISM

(From the "Morning Tost. )

The Spccial Commission of the American Relief Administration which came here to investigate the iood situation in Lithuania concluded its work recently with a visit to the Lithuanian-Bolshevik front, 22 miles cast of Jj'oyno. The commission consists of Major Ross and Captain Ilollister, of the United States Army, and a Red Cross representative, and was sent out from Warsaw by Colonel (irove,, the head of the Poland Relief Aussion. After half-an-hour's ride the party .omul itself in a village containing ISO houses, and was received by the Lithuanian Commanding Officer, who was formerly a captain in the Russian Army. I'lie commander explained good-naturedly that the land the American Commission was standing on was "the furthest outpost or civilisation," and that across a few kilometres was A T o .Man's Land, where the Bolsheviki are in control. He also explained that the section of front imdev his control was the most important, as the Bolsheviki are anxious to enter Kovno, where a direct railroad line runs into East Prussia, and the Russian Bolsheviki are anxious to get in touch with tho Ivonigsberg Spartacists. Tho Bolsheviki likewise expect help from the Spartacists, who ar? believed to. be thick in the.German Army occupying Kovno and Lithuania. The front occupied by tho Bolsheviki is primitive and violates every tradition of the present war. They have no barbed wire entanglements, and no trenches. A large proportion of tho soldiers have uniforms and only a few have had more than a month's military training. The only thing that mal'ks these peasant boys in homespun as soldiers is their military caps, which every one of them wears to justify his carrying a gun. Guerrilla Warfare. The Commander explained that the warfare against the Bolsheviks was largely of a guerilla character, and in that special section was largely defen r sive on the part of the Lithuanians. He said that the Lithuanian Army was only two months old, f hat its numbers all told were not more than 10,000 men, and that it- is handicapped by the lack of ammunition and clothing. Nevertheless, lie felt confident of victory over the Bolskeviki because of the zeal- with which the peasant boys were fighting, and' the whole-hearted support which the Lithuanian nation gives to its Army. The Commander then said: ''Lithuania is fighting the Bolshevist Army in the same manner in which' it would fight a flock of hungry wolves or a forest fire. The peasant boys fight for 'their homes and the possessions which they have laboriously earned in the course of generations and even centuries. Not ten jier cent, of the Bolshevist troops who are fighting us have any conception of. the idealism which men of the type of Lenin seo in Bolshevism.

"To the Soviet army hereabouts Bolshevism as a practical proposition means plunder &nd robbery. When the Soviet troops occupy a Lithuanian village they strip the population of their bread, cattle, clothing, wagons, and implements, and send' them into the devastated interior of Russia. In hundreds of-instances the Bolshevist troops,.on occupying Lithuanian territory, have allowed but a Birigle shirt to each inhabitant and requisitioned the rest. This war hero against Bolshevism is simply a struggle for survival, hence the desperate bravery with which our boys fight, despite the handicaps. The peasant population of Lithuania has made this fight against Soviet Russia, a family affair. Daily from ten to fifteen peasants drive up in their carts to visit their soldier boys and to bring them food, shirts, or knitted woollen gloves and socks.

Plight of the Bolshevikj. lie-then stated that, bad as. was the condition of the 'Lithuanian troops, tuu Bolshevik troops were in even a worst; plight and that recently several companies of starved .Bolshevik soldie.rs who surrendered wept bitterly and said that they entered tho Bolshevik Army because it was the last refuge from starvation and death. As soldiers they could «t least mako provision for themselves hy robbing and pillaging. He then added that invariably the Bolsheviki send with every regiment a member or an Agnation Committee, which spreads proclaims tions among tho population, in which glowing pictures of what the Soviet Uovintend to do for the peasantry are painted. To counteract this the Lithuanians spread' proclamations couched in phraseology similar to that employed by the Bolsheviki, but the tense of which is .anti-Bolshevik, Until recently the Soviet would send agents with such Bolshevik propaganda into Lithuania, but now the Lithuanians counter-attack by sending their agents with anti-Bolshevik literature into, the Soviet lines. This is the most dangerous part of the war, for while both Russians 'and Lithuanians spare the average prisoner, the proclamation distributor on each side, when caught, is summarily shot or bayoneted.