VLADIVOSTOCK OF TO-DAY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1802, 16 March 1918, Page 4

VLADIVOSTOCK OF TO-DAY.

CHAOTIC CONDITIONS. MILES OF WAR MATERIAL. MUCH BELOW TIDE LEVEL. The chaos which reigns at Via (livestock was graphically described by Mr C. H. Carter, an American traveller, in an interview with an Auckland Herald reporter last week. Accompanied by his wife, Mr Carter went to Vladivostock from San Francisco with the intention of travelling some distance east into Siberia, thence south through China, but the difficulties Avere so great and the future so uncertain that the tour had to be abandoned. ‘‘Japan will have to step in and protect the allies’ interests in Siberia,” said Mr Carter, “if-millions of pounds’ worth of essential war material is to be made secure, against Germany. For 15 or 20 miles the beach at Vladivostock is piled with munitions and supplies of all descriptions machinery, motor i ears by the hundred, steam an gasoline tractors, copper and steel for shells, and almost every essential in the way of Avar material. Much of this great dump was unloaded on to the ice, the materials being then dragged to the beach and left there. The confusion and muddle has been such that much of it is below high-water level, and Avbeiy the tide comes in it is covered by Avater which, in the case of the machinery, must, do great damage. But this is not the only place where there is congestion of Avar supplies. Every terminal betAveen the Pacific Ocean and the Ural Mountains is loaded Avith freight, because many of the railway depots along the route haA-c not the capacity of Vladivostock. At the present time Vladivostock can handle about 300 cars'daily, the capacity of each being 15 or 20 tons, but Harbin can handle only 150 to 200 cars daily, and this number diminishes further on oAving to the lack of terminal facilities. All this material has come from America and Japan.” Referring to the conditions in Vladivostock, Mr Carter said there A\ys indescribable chaos and no certain form of authority. In the town there Avere 15,000 or 20,000 soldiers who. were under no semblance of discipline or control. They simply wandered about the streets and did Avhal they liked. Drilling was a thing of the past, and every man appeared to be bis own commanding officer. The slate of lb's undisciplined' rabble of a garrison gave an indication of the awful ‘conditions existing throughout Russia. •‘The port of Vladivostock is closed,” continued Mr Carter, “and trade is at a standsaill. A foreigner cannot deposit money in the banks, nor can he Avithdraw it, and anyone arriving cannot leave under a period of ten days. These,” he concluded, “arc a fenv of the results of the first attempt of the people of Russia to rule themselves.”