ON THE EASY FROM.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 October 1917, Page 3

ON THE EASY FROM.

THE BALTIC BATTLE/

.RUSSIA’S NAVY

[LONDON TIMES SERVICE—CO l’ V RIGHT]

PETROGRAD, Octobor 16

There ale signs of improved morale in the Russian Navy. Bolshevik influence is losing ground, and they may fight well. The' Baltic Navy is recovering quicker than the army. At the outbreak of the present revolution Bolsheviks started the mutiny in tin; smaller warships at Holsingfors, in voking vengeance for punishments awarded in 1905 when the fleet was an frozen ice. Agitators had. a free field Admirals Irren, Neplnin,. Nebolsin and otffier ‘ officers were slaughtered like cattle at the stake, or dropped alive into holes in the ice. Indignities and brutality were shown towards widows and. orphans. searching for the remain", of iloved. ones.. Petrograd a'gitiators were abetted by German spies. Subsequent recovery ’permitted the repulse of the German fleet in Irben Channel. UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.

PETROGRAD, Oct. UU

A Government decree hag fixed the Constituent Assembly at 730 members. Election is based on universal suffrage. Petrograd is to have twelve mein tiers and Moscow ten. .. . REGARDED AS LOST.

GERMAN SUCCESS

f 1 ‘reutkr’b” telegram.]

(Received this day at 1.20 a.m.,)

PABIS, Oct. 16

Well informed circles in Petrograd ro gard Oesel and Dago Islands, and tlic Gulf of Riga a? lost. Nevertheless tho value of Riga to the enemy is small until the Teresten fairway in the Gulf, is cleared, which is impracticable as long as the forts on tho western peninsula of Oesel hold out. Russians destroyed the fairway two years ago by sinking interned German craft laden with stone and cement, in preparation for a landing being undertaken by two divisions, made with the minutest care. They included n clever piece of trickery, enemy lignt. craft, succeeding in altering the position of tho buoys marking the minefields between the Islands and the mainland, causing a number of Russian scouts to run ashore, thereby warning tho enf'my that a landing coulcf not be made.