ALLIED OCCUPATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 December 1918, Page 3

ALLIED OCCUPATION.

THE REASON WHY. LORD MILNER EXPLAINS. fAUSTRALIAN & N.Z. CABLE ABBOCIATON & REUTER.] (Received This Day at 8.45 a-in.) LONDON December 18. The Press Bureau states Lord Milner reply to a, correspondent states the Allies forces whereof the British are only a small proportion went to Russia "because the Bolsheviks were assisting our enemies in every posable way. The Bolsheviks’ action released him dreds of thousands of Germans for the West Front and caused Roumnnia to fall, into German hands. They handed over the Black Sea Fleet to the A Germans and treacherously attacked the Czecho Slovaks who were endeavouring to leave Russia to fight for their own country’s freedom. Furthermore it was necessary to protect a vast quantity of the Allies military stores at Archangel and Vladivostock.

FURTHER EXPLAINED. TAUSTRALIAN & N.Z. GABLE ASSOCIATION. A REUTER.] (Received this day at 11.25 a.in.) LONDON December 18. ■Lord Milner continued—Hie inter.veniion had proved successful. The Czecho-Slovaks were saved, the resources of Siberia and southeastern Russia were denied the enemy; the northern ports of European R ussia were prevented from becoming German submarine bases from which the North Sea barrage could be turned. These important achievements contributed materially to Germany’s defeat . In the course of Allied intervention, thousands of Russians fought on the side of the Allies. It would be an abomiable betrayal to leave them to the tnder mercies of their enemies, becauso our own immediate purposes had been served. 'Government does not desire to leave British troops in Russia. a day longer than is necessary to discharge the moral obligations which ho also believed to be tlie guiding principle of all the Allies. Personally, Lord Milner said lie thought the time was not necessarily distant when the withdrawal would be possible without disastrous consequences. If the Allies scrambled out of Russia immediately, the barbarism which at present reigns in only , part of the country, would almost certainly spread to the whole thereof. The ultimate consequences of such a disaster was not foreseeable, but it assuredly would involve a. far greater strain on the. British Empire’s resources than the present committments.