CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA.

Taihape Daily Times, 20 December 1918, Page 5

CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA.

o Four Czoeho-Slqmk officers who have been fighting on the jMurman front paid a visit to England recently They gave an interesting account of the present conditions in Russia, specially in regard to the Bolsheviks. One stated that he was serving in ia Hungarian regiment at the outbreak of war, and was sent to the Russian front with the Austrian Army in 1915. The first night that he wos in the trenches he, six other officers, and 100 men, he says, went over from his regiment to the Russians, where they were warmly v received, and subsequently placed with the Ozceho-Slo-vak troops. Since then he has seen much service against the Germans and Austrians. particularly during Maekensen’s onslaughts on Roumania. Hundreds of thousands of Czechoslovaks have deserted from the Austrian cause. Of these, 150,000 can be definitely traced. He estimates that there had been 50,000 serving on the western front, and that 100,000 are distributed between Yladivostock and the Murman coast. Speaking of 'recent events in Russia, this officer said that fialf (the auibassaqrets and 'outrages attributed to the Russian people had not been perpetrated by them at all, but by the hordes of German and Austrian prisoners whom the B'olsheviks had put into Russian uniform to bolster up their tottering regime. There was not the slightest doubt that these Austrians and Germans were invited by their own Governments to support the Bolsheviks and increase the turmoil in Russia. He declared that as the great majority of the Russian people wore utterly opposed to the Bolsheviks, he had no doubt that the cause supported by the Czecho-Slovaks would ultimately prevail. **