NEW CRISIS IN RUSSIA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 261, 31 July 1919, Page 5

NEW CRISIS IN RUSSIA

BRITISH FORCES TO BE EVACUATED DANGEROUS SITUATION SEQUEL TO RECENT MUTINY (By Telesrapli-Prcss Association-Copyright London, July 25. Tho War Office announces that evacuation will bo possible immediately the Dwina rises, 'when the whole of the force will bo withdrawn from Archangel. The "Daily Mail," in a leader, says that German officers are stopping in the Bolshevik armies. A Gorman engineer is in Moscow in control' of the munition factories. .If the Allies do not procoed on a crusado against the Bolsheviks, Russia, will fall body and soul into tho arms of tho Hun, and the war which was so gloriously won in the West will be lost in tho . East—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

MOST SERIOUS SITUATION London, July 25. An Archangel correspondent depicts a most serious situation. The anti-Bolshe-vik troops began mutinying on July _6, when a battalion formed of ex-Bolshevist prisoners murdered its British officers and (led into tho forests. Others mutinied later. The > latest British reinforcements are of nothing like the calibre of the elderly Scottish and Yorkshire troops, who, although heavily outnumbered for a year, by forced marches and dashing patrol work bewildered and browbeat the Bolshevists. Tho correspondent regards the Bolshevik army as an efficient and powerful fighting machine, with well-trained artillery. Tho Bolshevik forces include many thousands of conscripted peasants. Evacuation will mean the certain massacre of 3000 antiBo'lshevists in Archangel, but the only alternative is the immediate sending of strong reinforcements. Plague of Mosquitoes. A "Times" correspondent at Archangel describes extraordinary fighting in this nightless region. The English are so tortured by the myriads of mosquitoes that death from the Bolshevists' woll-aimed shrapnel seems a relief. Every Remedy has been tried against the mosquitoes, but has proved useless. The fair faces of the Englishmen soon becomo unrecognisable from their attacks. The Bolshevists put the poorest peasants in the front, lashing and terrorising them into action; but behind them are splendid artillerists, apparently officered by Germans. Tho Bolshevists aro anything but tho demoralised or inferior (kilters they aro thought to be.—"Tho Times." ■

DISPATCH FROM MR. KEITH MURDOCH London, July 25. Mr., Keith Murdoch writes: The recent military successes' of the Bolshevists have considerably enhanced the security of tho Soviet Government. The antiBolshevist commanders have now no hopo of defeating tho Soviet armies before the winter enforces a cessation of the fighting. Indeed, some of the anti-Bolshevist armies urgently require the winter interruption for reorganisation and recruitment. After reviewing the Bolshevist successes, Mr. Murdoch says that Trotsky has dismissed highly-placed advisers who advised against an offensive. Dealing with the Archangel expedition he declares that tho extrication of the British force may be impossible; but the Bo'shevists offer to .withhold attack on condition that the British embark as soon as possible. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. EXODUS OF PANIC-STRICKEN . POPULACE. London, July 25. A telegram from Tumen graphically describes the flight of hundreds of thousands of refugees, panic stricken, beforo tho Bolshevist armies. The (light eclipsed (ho terrible exodus of 1915. when the Germans invaded Poland. All classes aro among the refugees, ill-fed nnd ill-garbed, and thousands of them are barefooted. AH are grimly determined to abandon everything rather than endure tho presence of the Bolshevists.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable A,ssn.