RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 June 1917, Page 5

RUSSIA.

IMMEDIATE RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE. DISTURBING NEWS FROM THE INTERIOR, Pctrograd, June 21. A workmen's and soldiers' congress, representing all Russia, unanimously voied in favor of an immediate Russian offensive. Martial law has been proclaimed at Tomsk, owing to wholesale murders and robberies by amnestied criminals called to the colors, and anarchists. Twentythree hundred have been arrested. Twenty who resisted were.kißed and a number wounded. London, June 21, The Petrograd correspondent of the Daily Mail has returned from a three weeks' visit to the interior. He states that, although the people have no desire for a separate peace, the war is everywhere unpopular. The peasants declare it must end quickly, their attitude being: "We have shed too much blood and the time for slaughter is ended." Conditions in the towns and country differ. Government Commissioners nominally ruled the former, but actually shared the power with the soldiers, substituting persuasion for the former .brutal regime. In the country the peasants have elected local management committees, who are practicallv powerless, the o.easjants settling things themselves. They , have seized the lands, and the majority are in favor of seizing the farmhouses. They will only obey the decrees of Parliament if they coincide with their desires. Robbery and arson are freauent. All the trains are crowded with soldiers coming from and going to the front. EX-CZAR TO BE TRIED. SEPARATE PEACE DOCUMENT FOUND. Received June 23, 1.5 a.m. London, June 22. Mr. O'Grady, speaking at Queen's Hall, said the ex-Czar and reactionaries would be publicly tried. M. Kerensky had informed him that a document, dated 15th March, had been discovered, assenting to a separate peace. Mr. A. Thomas, in charge of light railways and tramways on the Board of Trade, has been offered the presidency of the Local Government Board. WOMEN VOLUNTEERS' MANIFESTO. A CREDIT TO THEIR GOOD SENSE. Received June 22, 5.5 p.m. Petrograd, June 21. The Military 'Union of Women Volunteers, in a manifesto to the people and workers, appeals to them to struggle against the enemy, whose enslaving tendencies are antagonistic to Russia's revolutionary ideals. Another manifesto appeals to the Allies not to condemn Russia hastily, as she is over-absorbed in consolidating her inew liberties., M. Makalakos, thetleader of the Cadet Party in the Duma, 'has vbecn appointed Ambassador at Paris. RAILWAY STRIKE AT .MOSCOW. / Received June 22, 8 p.m. Petrograd, June 21. Railwayraen on the petrograd a«d fMoseow railway struck, without waiting for the award of a commission who were considering their economic grievances. Thp Government has appealed to the people to remain calm in view of the possible extension of the .giriie. ""