Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star FRIDAY, AUGUST 27th, 1920 THE RUSSIAN EMBROGLIO.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 August 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star FRIDAY, AUGUST 27th, 1920 THE RUSSIAN EMBROGLIO.

Affairs in Eastern Europe arising' on of the plight of Russia in the after math of the war and particularly in ft; igard to the crisis created in respect t< Polish affair’s as a result of the Russia] invasion, has produced an untoward se of circumstances for the principal A 1 lied nations to solve. We are told tha the situation has temporarily become ; ranging of sides with Britain and Ital; against France and the United States The plain truth of the present positioi is that Russia owes huge slums of money to France, and France to Am erica, and the importance of this re lationship between debtor and creditoi in chain becomes readily apparent ii construed in terms of individuals ir our own community. Russia’s foreigi debt in 1915 was equal to 1680 million pounds sterling, and has mounted considerably since. Russia at present owes Britain 568 millions; the French debt is considerably greater. 'None of the Allies will trade with Lenin’s Republic and America will not recognise it either —simply because Lenin has repudiated Russia’s debts. Trade is impossible in such case, and so the Bolsheviks are out to senze everything they can in war on

their neighbours in order to impose trade by force. Hence, too, the difficulty Lenin finds in securing foreign ■ recognition of the Bolshevik .Republic. International trade implies advances on credit, and no one will advance credit to a man or a country whose avowed policy is repudiation of debt. Russia is in truth, a writer points out, no homogeneous and solid State, but a conglomeration of sixty or seventy different peoples; the Bolsheviks are nowhere more hated than inside Russia, and in this condition of affairs any insurrection which sets up a reformed Government and solicits foreign support by acknowledging Russia’s obligations must naturally secure foreign support. Such a reaction is that led by General ' Wrangel, who succeeded to authority in South Russia after the defeat of Deniken. How far the Cossacks ever did ■ approve of Deniken is doubtful. Deniken, for one thing, was no champion : for ownership of land by the peasant cultivators, and through lack of support in that important quarter he failed. Wrangel, however, has definitely declared himself for the distribution of all lands to the actual cultivators, for ' free government in Russia, under free popular election, for non-persecution of any class or religion, for the protection of workers and professional organisations, for restoration of industries, and for the payment of the Russian debt. Wrangel was in the field with the Cossacks at the time of Ueniken’s offensive An Deniken’s defeat lie was driven away from the Don Cossacks home area, and retired down the/Volga. This was last October. On Christmas Day he took the place of Deniken, whom Deniken’s forces had abandoned, ' and retired to the " Caucasus with the 1 remnants of Deniken’s Army. S'-'d- | denly he appeared in the Crimea last | May and began a general attack. Two months later he defeated and almost I destroyed tile 13th. Red Army in the ! northern Crimea, a victory in which he ( I was considerably assisted by the descent , of Cossacks on the rear of the Reds. Wrangel rapidly advanced and reached the Dnieper and Molotehnaya- Rivers (a , strong defensive position), well beyond j the Crimean peninsula, and he is now operating in that vicinity. In the liberated regions he is restoring the Zem- 1 stovs (free provincial sssemblies) as he - goes, and his appeal to the people is to 1 support “the Russian army, march— 1 ing to deliver the Fatherland from the '

Red traitors.” Although the British Government has repudiated any responsibility for General Wrangel’s offensive, nevertheless Mr Lloyd George declared immediately after the Ilythe conference, that, if the Minsk negotiations between the. 'Reds and the Poles failed Britain would give support to AVrangel. This seems to have been the An-glo-French agreement at Hythe, and France lias interpreted it into prompt action.