MUTINY AT KIEFF.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1917, Page 5

MUTINY AT KIEFF.

TROUBLE IN SOUTH RUSSIA. BRITISH COVER RUSSIAN RETREAT. Received July w, 5.30 p.m. . T .. . Odessa, July 25. a Ukraine regiment at Kie.ff, that refused to go to the front or to recognise tiie autonomous assembly, was disarmed. The militia arrested t>- chief ot police and the military commandant, sacked the arsenal and stormed the treasury A professional thief proclaimed himself commandant at Kieff. After some fighting, loyal regiments disarmed and arrested the mutineers. Many demonstrations have occurred in South Russia against the dark forces ot the extremists. There was bloodshed at Nijm-Novgorod, where the extremists incited the troop 3 to refuse to go to the front.

A Petrograd correspondent states that thousands of soldiers are joining in the hunt for Lenin, who has .written to the newspapers denying that he received a penny of Herman funds.

Mr. Wilton, the correspondent at General KornilolT'g headquarters, states that British armored car rid trench mortar sections gallantly covered the ißussian retreat, but the "stand was unavailing in faee of the infantry debacle. The Britishers later co-operated with the cavalry iu the defence of Taruopol.

RUSSIANS LOSE ARTILLERY. DESERTERS BLOWN TO PIECES. Received July 26, 0.43 p.m. London, July 26. The Morning Post's Petrograd correspondent states thnt the Eleventh Army lost all its artillery, and it is doubtful whether the artillery of the Seventh and Eighth Armies will be saved. The enemy is astride of the only good road on the Eighth Army's lines. In the retreat a whole division of the Eleventh Army was blown to pieces by its own artillery in efforts to stop the 'runaways.

A STAGGERING COLLAPSE. INFANTRY SHOOT GUNNERS. IN ORDER TO GET HORSES. Received July 2G, 0.4 p.m. London, July 2G. The- Morning Post's Petrograd correspondent states tliat the details of the collapse almost staggers belief. The infantry of the Eleventh Army shot its own gunners in order to get the artillery horses, or shot the gun horses in re. venge, the gunners firing upon the runaways. This panicstricken act. unless it was an act purchased by treachery, left practically all the artillery of the 11th Army in the enemy's hands. There is also no hope of saving the artillery and technical appliances of the Seventh and Eighth armies.

The Germans, two days ago, were across the best road on the shortest line of retreat. The old Russian gun positions are now behind the German line. The Eighth Army has abandoned Stanislau, an.d is making its best haste eastward, but it is exceedingly doubtful whether it will escape.

RUSSIA'S MORAL ASSASSINS. HEROIC OFFICERS FALL IN MASSES SITUATION MAY YET BE SAVED. Times Service. Received July 26, 8.30. p.m. Petrograd, July 25. Referring to the Eleventh Army's want of discipline, the Times correspondent states that it is due to the extremists' propaganda, which it is daily becoming clearer is the work of German spies and agents. The impudence of Russia's moral assassins is almost past belief. Heroic officers are falling in masses, and insubordination has made headway in all narts of the army, but Russia's psychology is capable of extraordinary changes, so that the. situation may yet be saved. Kerenslcv's disinterestedness is unquestioned, and his fervent eloquence is a driving force that will win if it is a one-man job, which is doubtful.

■ MIGHTY RUSSIA. -< «** A GERMAN WARN'ING. Tn the ".Local Advertiser" of March 13 front-piwe prominence is given to one of the most remarkable articles about Russian which any German newspa/pcr has published during the war. It warns Germany that, revolution or no revolution, Russia remains a mighty foe. Official Germany was evidently in no doubt, even before the Coir's abdication was an accomplished fact, that the revolution denoted one thing and one thing only—the people's determination to go on with the war. The article urgently warns Germans to be under no delusions on this score. The writer even finds courage to declare —-and the Govern-ment-controlled organ prints the phrase in bold-faced, tvpe —that the mou.jik (Russian peasant) has revolted "because he is no longer willing to wage war to till the pockets of Petrograd bankers, generals, and factory owners." This frontal-attack hint may not be entirely lost on the German mouiik and others. The intention is to show that however events in Russia may develop, they cannot undermine the real sources of ■Russia's military strength—men and food.

,; Let us face the facts, and judge Russia's power of resistance on the basis of actualities, instead of from the standpoint of doubtful possibilities. The main question is, Has Russia still the necessities of life? There is no lack of cither cattle or grain. There 13 shortage of both at the moment, and everything is terribly dear; but don't let us imagine from this that famine is stallcng through the land. A country with the eoai f oveatct, and agricultural resources

of Russia fan neither he frozen nor starved cut. That is impossible. MUNITION. n^^ "Is it possible for Kussia indefinitely to replenish her supplies of guns and ammunition ? I think we may answer it with a "No* without letting wishes he. come father to our thoughts. Munition production depends on the capacity of industry. Gigantic efforts were made to establish a great munition industry in Russia, but none of the (lovernment's organisation failures during the war has been so disastrous. Machinery lias fail, ed. The peasantry was impressed suddenly into industrial work, but it did hot take either enthusiastically or effectively to the change from the plough to the lathe, Russia soon found herself entirely dependent on foreign munitions, mainly from .Japan and America. The net result is that her capacity to continue the war is simply a matter of her ability to continue the import of munitions. The vital artery of Kussia runs through Archangel. That fact illuminates the enormous danger which our XTboat warfare constitutes for Russia,

"Let us not pin too rosy hopes on internal turmoil in 'Russia. Let us not build any air-castles out of her food and fuel difficulties. Let us confine our hopes to the realm of tangible reality. If we can drag this last plank (Archangel) from beneath our enemy in the East, then his big words about 'war to the last man' must be drowned beyond hope of resuscitation."