ABOUT RUSSIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 April 1920, Page 3

ABOUT RUSSIA.

A SOLDIERS REPORT.

AUSTR AI.TAN A N.Z. OABI.K ASSOCIATION] LONDON, April 10. Sergeant-Major J. G. Gray, of Richmond, Melbourne, formerly of the Eighth Battery, has returned from Russia, where he .was engaged in the British secret service against the Soviet, He was mainly in the neighborhood of Pefrqgrnd, which be left a month ago- Ho describes the conditions as deplorable, saying there aie practically no factories working. Fond was very coarse and. very scarce. A pound of tea c-ost six hundred roubles. A great majority of men were still under arms. He says Red women guards armed to the teeth, are also constantly patrolling the streets. Even the smallest villages are under close supervision. Despite these appalling social conditions, however, he says, Petrograd is H-ep-y gay. The trams 'are running, tfiitere aYe the usual theatres. The dancing saloons are filled with vulgai crowds, but the gentlefolk are entirely j absent. The aristocrats wo'uld seem to have almost completely disappeared, i A few are occasionally encountered in some humble surroundings in remote | villages, but’ the majority have fled. ! M an y high born Rusinn ladies have , taken refuge in Finland, where they are acting as governesses and clerks. It is impossible to estimate the extent of anti-Bolshevik feeling in Russia. People appeared to he afraid to express opinions, but opep, violence and outrages, of which he saw many evidences, j ana beard dreadful stories, appear less ‘ prevalent than formerly. | Sergeant Gray wore peasant dress and escaped detection. His carefully manicured nails, be says, once aroused I suspicion, but a sound knowledge of the Russian language put the BoTshe'viks off the scent, Gray, with other I members of the party, on completion of the missions’ work, returned to Finland across tbe frozen Finland Gulf on ’.skis), and encountered a violet bliz- ’ gard. The temperature was 42 .degrees 1 below zero. While skieing on Lake Ladoga, lie lost his direction for seven hours, finally reaching a village in a state of collapse, His condition ’’o- - serious for over a fortnight, even after arrival in England, via He'singfors, at the end of March. Gray was service abroad and after the armistice was oil the roll of an Australian boat, when he decided ft, join the British Lake Flotilla proceeding to Lake Onega, The flotilla consist od of six 35ft. motor boats and four ' 40ft ones. Gray’s boat was manned by four Australians, two South Africans j and a New Zealander. The crew exchanged a bottle of whisky for an Australian ensign. They succeeded in capturing the first Bolshevik steamer ■ “Afod” and hauled down the. Bolshevik red flag. They hoisted the Australian 1 eusiioi. On one occasion the soealKl te“Aussie” boat back-fired putting hot I out of action. The vessel drifted .all night long, and was posted as missing, ’ but later was discovered by an aeroplane, and succeeded in returning under j its own powers. i Gray, after three months on Lake Onega, returned to England, via Murmansk. When the British evacuation of Russia was undertaken Gray arranged for immediate repatriation of Australia and was proceeding aboard J a boat, his luggage being already I- aboard, when in response to a tclcgram he joined the Russian Secret Ser- ( vice Mission.