IN RUSSIA.

Taihape Daily Times, 27 December 1917, Page 7

IN RUSSIA.

SAD AND HUMILIATED

MRS. PANKHURST’S STORY OP CHAOS

Landon. ‘‘The intelligent and patriotic Russian is humiliated and sad. What Russia wants is a strong Government with power to enforce its decisions.”

Those two sentences summarise the impressions brought back from Russia by Mrs Pankhurst after her stay of many weeks in Pctrograd and Moscow. She described to a Daily Express representative some of the aspects of the chaos that has followed the revolution.

“The people have had no training in democracy/’ she said,. “The great majority cannot even read the posters continually displayed on the walls. They were never allowed to listen to speeches under the old regime. The consequence is that now they arc mesmerised by speeches. Meetings are held on every possible occasion. The wounded men, for example, in a certain hospital met and voted whether they should take their pills. The convalescents had a meeting to decide whether they should get up or stay in bed! Liberty means to these people doing what they like. The soldiers in a train compelled the stationmaster to alter the signals that were against them and to permit them to go on. Poor Russia! Everywhere in all the turmoil and the muddle there is the hand of the German agent. Food is scarce in Petrograd, and everything is very dear. Bandits infest the country. The men at the head of affairs represent no one, Petrograd is not cheerful, but it remains patient. That is the Russian’s nature. “The women in the battalions of death are splendid. The leader, Mms. Bochkerova, is a peasant woman with a fine ideal of patriotic duty. The original idea of these women soldiers was to inspire the men to do their duty. After Mm. Bocherova came out of hospital she told me that she intended to organise her force to restore order, but she was sent witn two hundred of her soldiers to the Riga front just before the Korniioff trouble. When I left Russia 1500 women were training for the army in P-etrograd, 2000 at Moscow, and hundreds in other cities. The women’s battalions have been followed by men’s battalions of death, made up of soldiers, wounded and discharged, who have volunteered for further service. It was pathetic to see these men, some with one leg, ethers with one arm, marching along the streets on their way to the station. “It was curious to notice that, as the discipline among the rank and file 1 of the army grew less and less, the officers became more and more riged 1 in their observance of every detail in military etiquette. The Cossacks are in many respects the most attractive figures in revolutionary Russia. They are the antithesis of all that we in Great Britain have supposed them to be. They have always enjoyed a large measure of liberty and they realise that freedom entails obligations. . They have a fine tradition. They are disciplined, courteous, educated, and high-minded. The reports of their meetings make about the only pleasant ’ reading in the Petrograd newspapers. Their speakers always recognise that Russia is at war. At most of the other meetings that fact is ignored.” Mrs Pankhurst is not pessimistic about the future. Russia will save herself, and the more complete the sympathy of her allies, the sooner will dawn the day of her salvation.