HIGH TREASON.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 March 1917, Page 2

HIGH TREASON.

KX-WAR MINISTER TO BE TRIED. the sukhomlinoff affair. A Petrograd wire states that the government has o:'der;.d the in.mediate prosecution o£ General Sukhomlinoff (exMinister for War) for high treason The arrest last May of General Suk-, homlinoif caused a senßation in Russia. I'Jie special correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, writing from L'etrograd at the. time, Baid:— Persons well acquainled with the circle of friends aiul acquaintances in which the ex-Minister for War, General Sukhomlinoff, spent his leisure time, have furnished the great Moscow paper, the Russkoe Slovo, with some interesting particulars, of the circumstances which led up to his arrest. Their account of the affair is prefaced by an acknowledgment of his unusual military gifts, but it is added that iie allowed himself to be influenced by people of the adventurer type, and that this was eventually his undoing. By degrees (lie unscrupulous gang who had surrounded him got. him so completely into their clutches that escape was practically impossible.

While still at Kieff, it is alleged, General Sukhomlinoff was very intimate with Kuliaßko, Bogroff (tho murderer of Stolypin), and Myasoedoff (hanged last year for betraying Russian plans to Germany), and all three frequented his saloon. That it was Tvuliabko who gave Bogroff access to the theatre in the night of his crime was already generally known, but it is now stateil that the murderer would never have been able to approach his victim if it had not been for the privileges lie enjoyed as a friend, of Sukliomliiioff.

' When Sukhomlinoff moved to Petrograd, and took over the p ist of Minister tor War, lie was follqwsd by the majority of his liieff satellites. Among tJicm was Myasoedoff. It i? admitted that the ex-Minister for War probably had 110 inkling of the true character of this double-dyed traitor. If he liad had, it would probably have been all the better, for he appears to have reposed the greatest confidence in MyaaowU.;?,' and to have 'communicated to him l <t only all his private family news but also, many of the secrets of the department' lie was administering. On tiie other hand, according to thV account, a very considerable sUav.v if the responsibility for Russia's anrr.tparalnuss for war rests upon Sukhomlinoff, and 011 liim alone. While Germany from the very commencement of the campaign took energetic steps 'to mobilise all the forces of the country, in Russia, on the other hand, not oi.ly was nothing whatever done in this di/ection, but- the Minister for War promptly suppressed by force all attempts to' raise the question 0 f the.desirability of taking action of such a kind. It is further laid to Sukhomlinoff's charge that, without consulting any of his official coadjuetors, lie formulated and put into ex'.vutioir a faulty scheme of defence, which involved the abandonment of the Polish fortresses. It is susgcsti.-,] that though this grove strategic change was made' without the advice, of his proper and responsible advisers, it was in all probability discussed in the domestic circle, and, in that event, was-110 doubt, to some extent, influenced by the arch betrayer Myasoedoff.

It is further stated that tlie persistency with which Sukhomlinoff "rattled the sabre" in the period before the war and the constant assuran'os he gave ot Russia's readiness to fight, had a particularly mischievous effect; for they inspired an unfounded f et , ]ing of c^nfld _ ence amongst the publb which it took some time to shake, and thus prevented the proinrfc adoption of measures to rectify the consequences of his maladministration. As soon as the war had properly begun, the Minister was deluged with .appeals from the front for a more liberal supply of munitions. Such appeals are said to have reached him as early as August, 1!)14. Nevertheless, aukhomlnioir obstinately refused to consider ail the oilers of war material which were made to him, either by foreign firms or by industrial enterprises In Russia. He adopted the standpoint that the manufacture of munitions was work which could only be undertaken by Government arsenals,, and replied to tho petitions from the firing, lines wi'th.the words, "Try. to economise; the military works cannot make more.'.'

. Attempts were frequently made to enlighten the Minister as to tho shady character of many of his associates, but he paid no heed whatever to these warnings. Indeed, he singled out those who. gave them as hia. particular enemies, and treated them accordingly. Meanwhile, possibly without exciting the least suspicion on his part, his home had become a sort of "general stall of the enemy's spy organisation." All the threads of German espionage in Russia thus came together in the very residence of the Russian Minister for War The conspirators, according to this account, made great use of Madame Snkhomhnoff, a young and very attractive woman who gladly accepted the obeisances of the frequenters, to her. saloon. :It is said that more than once, when the General was beginning to feel dimly that the men with whom he had thrown in his lot were merely using liim for ( heir own purposes, and'to chafe a«ain«t their growing presumption, his wife stepped in as mediator and succeeded m restoring relations to their old footing. According to the account of the Russkoe Slovo, the character of'eleven of the habitues of Sukhonilinoff's family lished a 'ready been clearly estab-