CONFERENCE AT MOSCOW.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1917, Page 8

CONFERENCE AT MOSCOW.

DRAMATIC CLOSING SCENES. GENERAL KORNILOFF'S APPEAL. Loudon, August 30. The Times correspondent at Petrograd, Mr. Wilton, describing the closing scenes of the Moscow Conference, says:— It was a dramatic moment when General Korniloff ascended the rostrum. The majority rose to greet him, but the benchers, including soldiers, sat and did not cheer. They were heedless of the cries of "Shame," "Cowards," "Traitors." Their attitude of disrespect was continued throughout the speech, which was heard in an intense and awed silence. The Commander-in-Chief's remarks were clearly delivered, like hammerblows. He gave the naked truth—how the armies had been depraved and demoralised by outside influences and by carcless and ignorant men. Continued and revolting scenes of hooliganism recurred. Officers were butchered by men who hoped, in craven fashion, for mercy when reprisals were taken. Some regiments concluded a separate peace, and olfered an idemnity to the Germans. Only officers did not complain. They presented no demands, yet recently an officer was picked up in the streets oP Petrograd dying of starvation, unable to procure food out of his wretched pay. General Korniloff concluded by stating that the measures he proposed must take precedence of all business. He did not doubt for a moment that they would be adopted by the Government. Surely further shame and defeat were unnecessary, or must Russia lose Riga, Petrograd, and other cities and provinces before order was introduced? He coulfi pot believe it but the time was short. Mr. Wilton depicts the lively closing scenes of the conference, in which all sorts of accusations and counter-accusa-i tions were freely bandied. M. Kuledin, leader of the Cossacks of the Kirghiz and Caucasian tribes, and representing a solid block exceeding in size the population of the Central Empires, dramatically attacked the Council of Workmen and Soldiers' delegates. "We Cossacks," he said, "are free men, not drunken with new-found liberties, and not blinded by party or programme. We tell you plainly to remove yourselves from the places you have neither courage nor ability to fill and let better men have them." The outcome of the conference, he says, reveals a practical unanimity on three points, a strong army, continuance of the war, and the necessity for the conciliation of jarring class and party interests. Were it possible to assume this unanimity not subject to certain reservations the conference might be regarded as an unqualified success. Unhappily such is not the case. A strong army is impossible without discipline, food, and munitions, and nothing transpiring at the conference gives assurance that the reforms propounded by General Korniloff and endorsed by Generals AleMcff and Kaledin are likely promptly to be adopted in full measure. Half-hearted steps will only serve to intensify the present dis* organisation. The food supply is imperilled by wild agrarian schemes involving the destruction of the larger ana lesser farming interests. Munitions are not procurable in sufficient quantities tinder the present labor conditions. The revolutionary tax amounted to 97 per cent of the gross profits of the munition works. The conference was responsible for much eloquence from revolutionary idealists, but not a word was uttered calculated to afford proof of the ability to cope with vital conditions. One speaker asserted that the introduction of committees prevented the whole army bolting in the early days of the revolution, but General Alexieff remarked that the army only ceased to fight after the introduction of committees.

Against this overwhelming argument no special pleading can avail. After General Alexieff's revelations as to the slaughter of officers it was painful to listen to the advocates of the committee system, who said that its chief merit layin the establishment of friendly relations between the officers und the men.