CAPTURE OF KAZAN

Taihape Daily Times, 27 July 1918, Page 5

CAPTURE OF KAZAN

CZECHO-SLOVAK SUCCESS,

HORVAT IN SIBERIA

LONDON, July 15

The Berliner Tageblatt announces that the Czecho-Slovaks, despite the heaviest resistance by the Red Guards, captured Kazan, on the Volga. The Tageblatt adds that by the occupation of this important railway and waterway junction the Czecho-Slovaks have become'the masters of the government of the Lower Volga.

Other German papers state, in connection with the capture of Kazan,

that the Czecho-Slovaks are utilising Trotzky's mobilisation in- the Urals, on the Volga, and in West Siberia their own purposes, by forming from these recruits so-called 'Black Guards' which they are using for strengthening the Czccho-Slovak and other coun-ter-revolutionary forces. Mr Falk, correspondent of the Daily Mail at Harbin, states that the Siberian Government, of which General Horvat is temporary Premier,, is thoroughly representative, and includes the most prr-asiaac**: figures of .tjh'ie commercial and industrial life of Siberia. It is likely to be acceptable to nine-tenths of the Siberians, who are tired of demagogues, spell-binders and adventurers.

The Allies are certainly safe in supporting General Horvat, as he is *a man of action and skilled organiser, and is surrounded by similar men. The urgent necessity for Allied intervention is demonstrated by the opera bouffe exploits of the two rival Governments claiming to represent the unfortunate Siberians.

One, known, as the "Goverment of Autonomous Siberia," smartly reaped the fruits of the Czecho-Slovak capture of Vladivostock, while General Horvat 's Government was getting ready to take over the administration.

General Seminoff, leader of the Cossacks, declares that the Czechs' occupation of the railway between Chalyabinsk and Irkutsk offers the Allies a glorious opportunity to assist in preventing the German consolidation of Russia.