RUSSIAN CRISIS.

Taihape Daily Times, 4 January 1918, Page 5

RUSSIAN CRISIS.

BOLSHEVIK AMBASSADORS,

AGITATORS APPOINTED. LONDON,. Jan 2. A Russian report states that M. Trotsky, , Russian Foreign Minister, has appointed Citizen Litvenoff, one of the Russian agitators arrested and interned in England, Provisional Plenipotentiary in London, and has ordered the Embassy, the military mission. and other Russian officials In England, to hand over their documents to Litvenoff. Citizen Karpinsky, the other agitator arrested with Litvenoff, has been given a similar appointment. GERMANS MASSING TROOPS AT DVINSK. Received 8.55. NEW YORK, Jan 3. M. Fluerot, the New York World's Petrograd correspondent, says there are persistent reports that the Germans massing troops opposite Dvinsk has angered the Bolsheviks, and was ( one of the causes of the interruption of negotiations. RUSSIAN DEMONSTRATIONS. PITIFUL DISPLAY OF MASS SUICIDE. WHAT GERMANY WANTS. Received 10.50. LONDON, January 3. The Daily Chronicle's Petrograd correspondent says Russia is now torn by an infinity of warring factions. Sunday’s demonstration was ostensibly for peace, but in reality, for civil war. The educated classes were absent. It was a pitiful display of mass suicide.

Pavloviteh says' the tactics of the Austro-Gefman peace delegates were remarkably flexible until the arrival of the Ukrainian delegation; thereafter the Germans declared they would not evacuate the occupied territory until a general peace, because non-Bol-shevik portions of the Russian army, assisted by 'Anglo-Franco, might continue fighting and seize Brest, Litovsk and other important strategical points The Germans are prepared to evacuate Belgium and France on condition that Mesopotamia and Arabia arc evacuated, otherwise Germany’s prestige in Mohammaden -world would receive its death blow, Pavloviteh adds The German terms, particularly for Russia, are unacceptable.

UKRAINE’S PROPOSAL.

PETROGRAD, January 2

The Bolshevik News Agency announces that the Ukraine Rada is willing to agree to the Bolshevik demands not to take or facilitate military measures against Bolsheviks, conditionally on money sent to Ukraine and the Ukraine Republic being officially recognised. The Russians are demanding a loan of two milliards of francs from the Austro-Germans.

' SENSATION IN RUSSIA. AT ANGLO-FRENCH WITHDRAWAL. Received 11.45. PETROGRAD, Jan 3. The news of the withdrawal of all British ships at Archangel and the breaking-up of the Anglo-French depots has caused a sensation in Kus sia. GERMAN INVASION OF RUSSIA. PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE. Received 11.10. LONDON, Janary 3. The Morning Post’s Petrograd correspondent sends a remarkable article describing German ascendancy in Russia, apart from 200 peace delegates in Petrograd. There arc hundreds of peace agents from Germany and thousands of prisoners of war enjoying complete freedom of movement. The German accent heard everywhere, and ensures respect from the Russian proletariat. The Germans are preparing betimes for an overwhelming industrial and commercial invasion of helpless Russia. The majority of German and Austrian prisoners of war won’t return to the fighting front without compulsion, and won’t even return to Germany after the war. Officers and non-coms, will return ut privates see the possibility of living much more profitably in Russia than Germany*. Germans are not confined to internment camps but are living amongst the people, and have easily proved their superiority to the Russians in all departments of life, whether in agricultural, industry, or commerce. It is a question whether the British Empire will feel secure against Russia in the hands of the enterprising industrious Germans, backed by the man-power of 150,000,000 Russians.