LATVIA CEEBRATES
TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF REPUBLIC OBSERVANCE ON MONDAY To-morrow is the tenth anniversary of the proclamation of the Latvian Republic, and Latvian Independence Day will be celebrated on Monday. The Latvian Consul in Auckland, Mr. N. E. Heath, will receive the usual courtesy calls from members of the consular corps, and according to custom each consulate will fly the flag of its own particular country. Latvia became an independent republic in November, 1918. Before that it was part of the Russian Empire. When the Great War broke out, about 180,000 Letts fought in the Russian Army, but in June, 1915, after the second German advance into Corn*land, the Lettish troops were made into a separate force, commanded by Lettish officers, and they held up the Germans before Riga until September, 1917, when they lost that city. Soon afterwards a Lettish conference was held at Walk, which demanded the formation of a united, autonomous Latvia, in a federated Russia. After the occupation of Courland and Riga by the Germans, a bloc comprising all the Lettish political parties, except the Lettish -Bolsheviks, the Baltic barons, and other German Balts, was formed at Riga. The aim was the independence of the country, as against its German!sation or union again with Russia, which had been swept by Bolshevism. In conjunction with the bloc, a national council was organised, and met for the first time on November 17, 1917.
After the armistice in November, 1918, a State Council was created from the bloc and the National Council, its 100 members being made up of 78 Letts, eight Germans, seven Jews, five Russians, one Lithuanian, and one Pole, the relative numbers indicating the composition by nationalities of Latvia at that time.
On November 18. 1918, Latvia was proclaimed a republic, and a Government was formed, with lv. Ulmanis as Prime Minister. Shortly afterwards, Latvia was attacked by the Bolsheviks, but after prolonged fighting succeeded in retaining its independence.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SUNAK19281117.2.104
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Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 514, 17 November 1928, Page 11
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323LATVIA CEEBRATES Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 514, 17 November 1928, Page 11
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