The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, JULY 12, 1918. A NIGHTMARE TO GERMANY.

Taihape Daily Times, 12 July 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, JULY 12, 1918. A NIGHTMARE TO GERMANY.

(With which is Incorporated The .raihape Post and VralnmEPio News),

If nothing intervenes to stem the progress of Russia’s most far eastern possession as outlined in a cable message received yesterday, Siberia is about to furnish one of the most unexpected epoch-marking events as a result of the present war. Although Siberia contains a million square miles more than the whole of Europe, is twice as big as Australia, and a hundred times bigger than England, it has figured very little in popular history. Its vast importance has been thrust upon Britain owing to the Russian menace to India, and in recent years Japan has been concerned with Siberia owing to the number of splendid roads, the trans-continental railway, and river steamboats that enabled Russia to concentrate large and powerful armies in Manchuria, threatening China, and at Vladivostock, a day’s journey from Japan. East and west .Siberia stretches' from the Ural Mountains to the Japan Sea, and north and south, from the 1 ' ArcUc Ocean to south of Turkestan, along the Am’- '•*' the boundary of Korea; its ihuuscrlas include everything from those of the extreme Arctic regions to camel-breed-ing in the far south. Siberia is the largest wheat field of the world; it contains many millions of acres of the finest sheep country; it is densely settled, and so far as the main highway from Europe to the Par East is considered, it has ample postal and telegraphic communications. It is in such an appanage of Russia that the vital seeds of true democracy have taken root, and one can scarcely conceive what the crop will be. A Government has been established at Vladivostock, an Assembly is to be convoked that will organise a restoration of law and order. A national flag has been ad- ; opted, which has two stripes, white and green, representing snowmlad mountains and the verdure of The plains. Siberia is to be liberated from the Bolsheviks; provincial - councils are to be established ,and all elections are to be by universal suffrage. Eastern Siberia seeks to be the first democratic State in Russian history, and the fore-runner of the regeneration of Great Russia. The new Government will continue to fight the Central Powers, the people to a man giving allegiance to the new regime. Hefe, then, is a new power that is capable of raising an army numbered in millions. With the Czech-Slovaks and a spicing of British and French troops a power has arisen that may contribute as much to winning trie war as that on the Western front. No time is being lost; Vladivostock is the present capital of the new Government, but its armies are moving rapidly; they have already partially linked up with the Czecho-Slovaks who are fast becoming masters oc Western Siberia, and that part induced in Russia proper on the eastern side of the Urals, of which Perm and Orenburg are the most important provinces. Germany sees a mighty Power has arisen in the country thought to be rendered comatose by the virile poison of a corrupting tongue, the effect of that poison is vanishing, and there stands revealed to the military scavengers of Germany a mighty host with swords raised to destroy them and the whole German Empire is petrified, not knowing where and how to strike first. For the carriage of heavy guns, men, and munitions there is a good railway from Vladivostock to Moscow and Petrograd, and by more direct route to Vienna and Berlin. This railway is already in the possession of the Czecho-Slavs; hut, besides, there are splendid rivers along which very large steamboats run from place to place, to say nothing of roads well supplied with telegraphic communications. We are already aware that The new forces are driving the Bolsheviks from Eastern Russia proper, and as the victorious forces of the new Russian democracy move westwards they

will come like a rolling snowball, gathering size and force as they go chilling the very marrow in the bones of Germany, as well as the bones of hor partners in murder, brigandage, and piracy. There is undeniable evidence that the time and opportunity Germany had of rendering all Russia completely at her mercy is past; a spirit of boldness and daring has arisen that enables the peoples of the whole world to realise that the Incipient stage of resentment against the yoke of Germany is past. The new force has arisen Phoenix-like from the ashes of Russian homes destroyed by Germans; it is severing treacherous Bolshevik hands and has commenced upon ridding Russia of German rulers. The shooting of Mirbach has caused a sensation in Germany, but it is very doubtful whether the Kaiser has the power to inflict punishment for such a flaunting of his power. The fact is the Czecho-Slavs know that the power that was, no longer is; that a superior power has arisen, and the guns and sabres from the waters of , Japan to the Ural Mountains, as well as‘those of Kazan, Georgia, Armenia, the Caucasus right ■ along to Ukrania, are rattling in sympathy with thos& in France, Belgium, Italy, Macedonia, and Albania, and the Central Powers are not able to stay the march of the Nemesis that is overtaking them. The delayed offensive on the West front is eloquent of the military situation; time is with the Allies and disastrous to the Germans, yet they still hesitate to strike. The world will doff its hat to the first democracy in Russian history; will pray for its success; will render all the assistance it can to ensure its rapid progress towards complete Russian regeneration. Russia has been made into veritable Aegean Stables, and the new democracy has realised that before anything further is possible their country must be rid of the execrable German filth, and their cleansing brooms are already sweeping all before them along the Siberian railway, in the Caucasus, in Ukrania, and those Germans that do not go must suffer the extreme penalty that Germany has so unstintingly meted out to Russians. Mirbach, the friend of the Kaiser, has fallen, and what can Germany do in face of the menace of this young, vigorous, bulky, well-armed, rapidly-growing democracy that is coming to replace the old Russian Juggernaut? Ludendorff still boasts about over-running 'ltaly, hut he knows that any success in that quarter would be short-lived; he is holding back from attacking on the West front, realising ‘that failure there must result in the collapse of all Germany’s plans; Italy is denied Mm, a force is coming against him in Albania, and when he turns towards the coveted East he hears the sound of the guns of a Russia that is fast coming into its own, and he realises that he has not sufficient soldiers to hold back the pressure. Germany, if very nearly the whole world was not’’opposed to it, would be a mighty,Power still; and the German War Lords muss now, in support of some possession of courage, launch upon the mighty final effort that can only result in prolonging the war, or in sealing their immediate doom. Germany hears, sees and feels the new Russian democracy that is marching on to Europe and is, for thetime being, stupified. News from Russia, coming largely through Berlin, is proving to be utterly unreliable; with the further progress of the regenerating forces more reliable news in increased volume will come through by other routes. That reaching the outside world via Japan discloses the glorious progress the new democratic forces are making towards becoming an important factor in bringing a victorious peace.