RUSSIA.

Taihape Daily Times, 26 September 1918, Page 5

RUSSIA.

TERRIBLE STATE OE AFFAIRS IN RUSSIA. BOLSHEVIKS WORKING UP MOB FURY. BRITISH SINGLED OUT FOR VENGEANCE. . PEOPLE DROP DEAD IN STREETS CHOLERA CLAIMS 900 VICTIMS DAILY. Received 8.50 a.m. LONDON, September 25. A despatch, dated August 14, has reached London from the Times' correspondent, Mr Dobson, who has not been heard of for some months. His present whereabouts and fate are unknown. The belated story vividly depicts the horror and completeness of Russia's anarchy, and the terrible plight of the British, Americans, and French, but it is feared the situation has become greatly worse since as Mr Dobson states that during August the B'olsheviks have been doing everything possible to work up mob fury against the Allied civilians. Their condition is altogether deplorable, but the British are singled out for the worst treatment. They are disqualified, outlawed, and arrested, their property and bank balances confiscated, and they are reduced to absolute penury. Their homes and belongings are daily searched. Imprisonment or worse overhangs our head like the sword of. Damocles. The Bolsheviks' fanatical hatred of the British is duo to the belief that British policy controls the whole war. Official Bolshevik newspapers teera with accounts of a general uprising in India., rebellions fa . fDreJand,. strikes in England and the collapse of tho Empire. They accuse English troops in Russian territory of slaughtering Russians, and looting, ravishing, and robbing, Every wall and housefront in Petrograd is plastered with gigantic mobilisation proclamations calling on the workmen to enlist and save the republic from Anglo-French rapacity. Russia is practically cut: off from: the outer world,,:and.only fh&. Murmanilineis working, but: telegraphpofficials.rare instructed to refuse 'British -official private, wires..■- Any, ~.at-: tempting to escape by .the MurmanskArchangel railways are .arrested. The? British consuls and staffs in Petrograd and Moscow are in an equally perilous condition, and are warned to be prepared for every emergency. Two hundred British subjects _#r.rested in Moscow were subsequently- released. Tho situation in Petrograd is terrible. Anarchy, famine, pestilence, murder, and robbery have become common terrors of everyday life. Men and women beg and drop dead in the streets from cholera and : starvation. The deaths from cholera had reached nine hundred, daily. .There is; insufficient wood for coffins, and the corpses- are carted to cemeteries wrapped in newspapers of' lay- unburied for days till the stench became frightful, and gravediggers refused to go near, for the hated bourgeoise had to dig their own graves. Tie Red Guards promiscuously commandeered groups in the streets and marched them to the cemeteries, where, surrounded by bayonets, they compelled them to dig graves and inter the putrifying, naked corpses. Mahy doctors, nurses, and sisters succumbed to cholera, as medicaments were unobtainable. The lazarettes in hospital wards were in a state of indescribable filth and disorder The outbreak started through the consumption of half-rotten fish. The food situation has become increasingly alarming, but the Bolsheviks persuaded their dupes that the increasing shortage was due to the advance of the Anglo-French and Czech troops. Domestic animals are disappearing; dozens die of hunger in the streets, biting the dust and gnawing the kerbstones. Dead horses found in the streets are chopped up and used as human food. Much sporadic internecine fighting and rioting took place in the country districts recently. Trucks of u"Sad soldiers, killed hy peasants, were entrained 'for Petrograd. In a brief postscript, dated 20th August, Mr. Dobson says all' the British feel great anxiety for their eventual fate. AMERICAN MINISTER ARRIVES AT HELSINGFORS. Received 9.10 a.m. WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 The State Department has received advice from Helsingfors that Mr Moore has arrived safely from Moscow Advices do not mention the FrancoBritish Consular officers, Who are detained at Moscow by the Bolsheviks.