RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 June 1917, Page 5

RUSSIA.

DRUNKEN ORGIES. IN THE PROVINCES, London, June 26. The Daily Telegraph's Petrograd correspondent states that the formation of the Coalition Government was preceded by remarkable disorders in the provinces. Hideous orgies of drunkenness Were enacted at Mt'zensk, where the entire garrison and many peasants raided the wine cellars of a manor house and indulged in a carousal, When the cellars were emptied a crowd of 5000 hurried to neighbouring distilleries, which were -burnt after they had drunk themselves into a condition of fury or coma, several cases ending in death. Other distilleries in the neighbourhood were saved by pouring away all the stocks. There were similar excesses in Samara, a towr. of 1v50,001> inhabitants. A mob of demoralised Soldiers looted the cellars of wine merchants, forcing the local Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates to destroy the wine stocks in tho town. 1 Tlie Saniara Fire Brigade smashed 10,000 bottles of win 6, Aagged 20 butts, each containing 1-35 gallons of wine, into the square, where they were destroyed with hatchets. The Council of Workmen's delegates in the early days of the disorders distributed a thousand leaflets containing moral precepts, but later was forced to arrest 30 of the ringleaders. FIGHTING ACTIVITY CONTINUES. London, June 26. Fighting activity continues south-west of Lutsk and between the Strypa and Dneister.