The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, JUNE l9, 1917. WHAT WILL RUSSIA DO?

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 19 June 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1917. WHAT WILL RUSSIA DO?

("With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waim'arino News).

A ray of hope with respect to Chaotic Russia conies from American journalists who were sent to that unhappy country to make exhaustive enquiries with a view to establishing beyond doubt just what the Allies might expect from the new form of Government; to disentangle the truth about Russia from the multiplicity of rumours that are flooding the world; to ascertain whether the majority of the Russian people, with their leaders, are honest and earnest in their professions that no separate peace shall be made with Germany, and to acquire some approximate idea of when the ' Russian army will be ready to resume a vigorous offensive- These American journalists have completed their enquiries and observations, and their report densed into a few words is extremely satisfactory. They are convinced, "That Russia is capable of coming back with tremendous blows that will surprise the world." That Russia is not only ready t,o take her place in the fighting again, but that she will surprise the whole world with the new exercise of her accumulated force. At the same time cables come telling us that Germany has officially offered a separate peace to Russia. The Swiss Government is the intermediary, and the Swiss Minister in Petrogxad has been authorised to say that ho is convinced, after conversation with an important German personage, that Germany aims at a peace with Russia which shall be honourable to both; with intimate economic and commercial relations, and with financial support to rehabilitate Russia. The final promise is rather fatal to the Hun diplomatic fabric, because the whole world knows that Germany has now no money to satisfy her own needs; that in the money market of the w-orld, even just over the borders of the German Empire—German money will on'ly be accepted at half its face value. What would, or could, Russia do with such money, and what nation would accept it as payment for anything that Russia might want? It is now no secret that Germany aims at a peace with anybody, honourable or dishonourable. What peace except that which comes from the cannon and the bayonet can Russia honourably conclude with Ger-. many; with the people that Russians have stood in fear of for generations The strong probability i s thai) this peace offer through Switzerland has only become public owing to the Russian Government's refusal to have anything to do with it. Germany maguanimously promises not to push any offensive against Russia while there is any possibility of peace talk being listened to, What generosity- There is not a shadow of doubt that if Germany could, her armies would now have been a long wa yon the road to capturing the wheat stores of Russia. The Allies in France and Belgium are saving RuS-

sia from such an invasion, and the Hun command is endeavouring to make a virtue of their, necessity. Even Russians are not such fools, as to be persuaded by. this obvious duplicity, and wo may dismiss that aspect of the EuSsian problem entirely from any deliberations on what may be expected from the newly established Russian democratic government. On the other hand, why should reliance be placed on the report made by American journalists, who tell us that Russia is capable of coming back with blows that will astonish the world? To answer that question it becomes necessary to ask another. Why did the Russian armies and people dc r pate General Russky to bail up the great Czar of all the Russias in a railway train and demand his immediate abdication of the throne? The first acts of revolution amply proclaim that it was not because the Army and the people wanted to enter into peace flirtations with the Germans that swarmed in the Russian Court, for everything German found it instantly advisable to get away to a place of safety. The German scoundrel priest, Rasputin, was murdered, and the habi itations of known Germans were assailed and their German occupants promptly put under lock and key, or sent away to a place of safety in the Siberian' interior. The, Revolution was the Russian army's reply to the Czar's pro-Germanism. The Russian monarch was trading his armies and the lives and freedom of his people for German promises of assistance in perpetuating absolute monarchy, and does it follow that Russky, who demanded the Czar's abdication, and the armies that knew they were being sold and their lives callously sacrificed, are likely to fall victims to the same old German enemies, who have for the time transferred their, affections for their own necessitous purposes from the Czar to those whom they sought to befool and destroy. It has never, from the first act of Russian revolution, seemed possible that the Russian people could take any other course than that for which they revolted; any other than that for which they so nobly and bravely fought; any other than that for which they suffered in the ever memorable retreat which was the outcome of their ruler's duplicity and treachery; any other than that for which thoy sent their, great general, Russky, to beard their traitor monarch his den, or rather his railway car, and to make demands in a few short sentences which resulted in transforming to his den, or rather his railway ear and in the power of the people, who only a moment previously he could sacrifce in thousands, by his treachery, to Germany. It seems almost unnatural and altogether unthinkable *hat the same Russia who dethroned their, Czar, and cast out' everything, German to rescue themselves ' from Teutonic influence should in only a few short months fall victims to that lying, spying, subterfuge, and that concentrated essence of treachery_for which Germany will for ever be famed in future history. All the important evidence is in favour of the conclusions the American journalists have come to, and we may reasonably expect that Russia will soon come back with blows that will surprise the world.