FLAME AND SWORD IN RUSSIA.

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 98, 20 January 1920, Page 7

FLAME AND SWORD IN RUSSIA.

GHASTLY SPECTACLES OF

DISASTER

TRIUMPH OF TROTSKY'S ARMIES

INVASION OF POLAND

PROJECTED

(By Telegraph-Press Associat.ion-Copyrisht London, January 15. With tho latest news from Russia, the military defeat of the Bolsheviks passes into the realm of distant possibilities. Flame and sword arc furnishing ghastly spectacles of ruin and disaster in the Last and Soufh-west, and a "great Russia" has been triumphantly re-estab-lished by Trotsky's armies amid this welter of misery and death. Tho last remnants of K'olchak's and Dcnikin's armies aro disappearing, leaving nothing.

"The Times" correspondent at Warsaw says that Dcnikin's forces are completely annihilated. Trotsky and the lied officers, he writes, favour an invasion of Poland, and -this is regarded as certain in April, after two months of reorganisation and regrouping of the forces. Tho Poles are ready in a strong strategic position, with the Letts and Rumanians on their flanks; but immediate Allied assistance is vital. The Bolsheviki are infinitely more numerous and better equipped. The Red forces are making rapid progress at Odessa, where n few "White" forces, under the guns of Allied warships, are rallying and talking of opposition. The Black Sea position is complicated by tho Russian Fleet, which we handed over to volunteers early in the war. The Teheran correspondent of "The Times" telegraphs that tho fleet is permeated with Bolshevism like the old Russian Caspian Fleet, and has sailed for Krasnovodsk, apparently to join the Bolshevists. Tho Tartar and Georgian Governments refused to trust Denikin, whoso rigid adherence to the methods and ideas of Iho old regime, and failure to recognise even the desire of the peasants to keep their land, raised wherever ho went a larger crop of enemies than those he conquered.

In East Siberia is utter chaos. Hunger is widespread, even among tho wealthiest, nnd refugees are dying in the sharpest pangs. Irkutsk is aflame; and local insurroctioiKirics aro deposing tho Kolcliak officials everywhere. It is not known what has become of tho alert, dapper, sharp-faced little man who since tho coup d'etat has signed himself "supreme ruler." The Czech hoops were turned back, at tho request of the Allies, and sent along the railway, and ordered Co rescue him; but the only news coming from territories to which they have returned is fragmentary; and tells how British. American and Japanese groups are isolated, and apparently overwhelmed and mado prisoner. Extremist outbreaks are reported at Vladivostok,, and the Allies are quelling them—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

QUESTION OF INTERVENTION

DANGER OF ASSIMILATION BY

GERMANY

London, January 15. The "Daily Mail" considers that tho collapse of the While forces in Russia is a drama as tremendous as -fho Great War,.and equally terrible, for it means tho massacre of thousands, accompanied by hideous tortures.

The paper says: "The nnpardonablo course would bo to yield to the temptation of the financiers who are begging the Allies to allow Germany to march in, in order (o pay off the Allies' war debts with llio proceeds of the exploitation of Russia. That policy would make Germany mistress of the world, and bring about a ne\c and worse war when Germany has conquered and assimilated Russia." It declares that unless the Japaneso largely augment their force the Bolshevists will soon reach (lie Pacifio. They have travelled ai: a great pace since they seized Omsk, and are showing brilliant organisation. The whole of tho Japanese Cabinet, except one member, in December favoured withdrawal from Silxrin.

Tho "Daily Mail's" policy practically amounts to complete military intervention. On the other hand largo sections of opinion view tho collapse of tho Whites with equanimity, and produce ample evidence of the Soviet's desire to remain within its own frontiers to reorganise industry and society according to ilio theories of tho Communists. Recent interviews given by Lenin. Radots, and Joffe indicate a of energies 'upon economic organisation. The Premier is the strongest believer in peace on this basis. Tho British Cabinet is tending towards peace, but franco remains implacable—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

ALLIED CONFERENCE AT PARIS BRITISH MINISTERS SUMMONED. London, January 15. Mr. Winston Churchill. War Minister, and Mr. Walter Long, First Lord of the Admiralty, have gone hurriedly to Paris in respond to Mr. Llovd George's summons. The purpose of tho Allied conference is to rfflisidor t:hc( Bolshevik mennep in the Middle Fast- Additional importance is given to the conference owing to the fact that Field-Marshal Sir Honrv Wilson, Chief of the Tmnerial General Staff, and Admiral Lord Beatty are attending it as the result of an urgent summons.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. BENIKIN INTERVIEWED RUSSIANS A NTT-BOLSHEVIK AT HEART. London. January 15. Tho "Daily Exnro=s" publishes an interview with Dcnikin at Taganrog. 110 attributes his defeat to the overwhelmin',' masses of the enemy, brought from other fronts. Ho refuses to parley with the Bolsheviki and says he would hang everybody implicated in the Bolshevik reirinic. The Russians, he said, are antiBolshevik at heart. He denied that tho volunteer army favoured the restoration of Tsarism. Even if he wore boatem the struggle would eont'nno until the riehteous cause trinmphed. He still hoped tho Allies would help to destroy the nower of the Soviets. "We are fighting to establish a free democratic Slate; but it must be a uniM and indivisible Russia, iii'-ludine the Baltic. States." The correspondent sovs there aro terrible scenes in the south, where groat masses of refugees are fleeing before the, Red Tenor. The French are landing many "iins. A sqmdron of British m-ia-tn-5," disrernrdine the orders of the War Office, continues' ' {n hnrrv tho Bol.shc-vil;i.-Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

THE WEAPON OF TERROR

TAT.K 0? LAYP.'O IT APTDK. London, January IS A virolc?" Tnos«n?e from Mflspov stntps Hint tlie has rpsnlvwl that- the compMp dpfent of Yudcuifcli. llcnilciii. unci KolphaV nffcrrl tlio (invoriinicnt an onporliinik of hi vim; aside Hip weapon of terror, which ivill "only lip rcnrwpcl if Hip Ei'tonto alImmiU armed intprvenlion.—Aiis.-N.Z. Cabin Asin. THE SIBERIANEXPkDITION iUITCTHTA >vn J a PAN KEACTT AfiKEF.MTINT. Tokio, January 1"). Tl; is aniinmip'cil llnl n rnmploln ,i!iwniiuil l,:i« I.oimi Mwpen America find Japan, by which .Timid n will on'''•avoni' to protect flip Siberian viilwav. 'I'bo Japanese npwspapers rcard Ibe Siberian expedition with liUle nntlmsiasm. hut official circles h"=isl nli_ tin.' necessity for stenimins; Bolshevism — Aiis.-N.Z. Cable Assn.