RUSSIAN CHAOS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1917, Page 8

RUSSIAN CHAOS.

CONDITIONS GETTING WORSE. A BLACK OUTLOOK. Vancouver, October 5. Conflicting cablegrams daily from Petrograd received tend to complicate the mystifying conditions prevailing in the great Russian Empire, but now an advance party 'lbis 'returned to NewYork from the home of the Slavs, carrying with them some reliable data as to the actual conditions obtaining in the country. The American passengers arrivd in New York aboard a Norwegian steamship direct from Russia, and tjiey said that chaos prevailed throughout the new Republic, and added that conditions were getting worse every day. They saw no hope of any improvement for a long time unless a dictator should come to the front with superhuman ability. The aristocracy and educated classes in Russia, they said, were sacrificing their lives daily by hundreds against the enemy, while the working masses were wasting lime arguing in committees in Petrograd. Kerensky, they said, was honest in his purpose, but that was all that could be urged in his favour. He was weak, a Socialist, and an idealist, and played to the populace in 'Petrograd in order to be elected the first President of the new republic. BERNSTEIN'S VIEWS. / Hermann Bernstein, the well-known editor of the "American Hebrew," who was sent to Russia to study conditions after the revolution, returned on the same ship, and expressed his disagreement with the views of his fellow-pas-sengers. He said that Kerensky was the idol of the people everywhere, and that lie was settling all difficulties. The soldiers, he asserted, were returning to the front, and would fight against Germany more strongly than ever. "Breshkovskaya, the grandmother ot tho revolution," Mr. Bernstein, said "travels from one city to another in a special train, addressing the populace, and telling them what the new form of Government means for them All. I saw some prisoners who were released after twenty-five years imprisonment for being connected with the plot to blow up Alexander TIT. They wept for joy when Kerensky addressed them in the great hall of the Winter Palace, where Breshkovskaya lives when she is in Petrograd. :The Palace had not been injured in any ivay when I left the capital; the streets were quiet, and the electric cars wert operating regularly; but very few automobiles were to be seen on account of Jhe high price of petrol." THE BATTALION OF DEATH. Another passenger was Mrs. Rheta Chikle Dorr, the American suffrage leader and writer, who has been abroad five months and spent the last three in Russia, where she had an interview with Vera ButchkarelF. the commander of the women's "Battalion of Death," and passed nine days with the women in the trenches.

"The American commission in Rus« sia," Mrs. Dorr said, "is powerless to do anything because there is no one in 'Pctrograd to do anything with. Tlio Government is in a state of chaos, and getting worse all the time. Kerensky is honest in his intentions, but he is an idealist,' and lacks the bigness to deal with the job. The people regard Juntas an idol, and bow to him in the streets, as he was then playing up for President. His honesty is unquestionable. Napoleon said, during the French Revolution, that a whiff of grapeshot was needed in Paris, to bring things to a speedy settlement, and restore order out of chaos, and that is just what is required in Russia to-day. The country needs a thorough' dictator, and unless one conies to the front, there is no hope foiRussia. KorniloiV is a great general, and popular with the people, and Kerensky is a great talker. He talks and talks from morning till night without accomplishing anything of importance. Russia is torn up by eighteen shades of politics, and the time is spent in arguing before committees. "I spent ■ nine days with the 'Battalion of Death' near' Vilna, and saw the wounded brought from the battlefield. They would not permit me to go into the front-line trenches. I have, a signed portrait of the leader, Bntchkareh", who is a born leader of women, and not one to be trifled with."

Mrs Dorr said that her quarters in Petrograd were in the Hotel Militairc, which was formerly the Hotel Astoria. It was filled with officers and soldier.-, and the Government gave permission for Mrs Pankhurst and another woman writer and herself to stay there. She said there were bloodstains on the floor: of her bedroom, and the walls were riddled with bullets.

The Germans were giving champagne dinners and supper' parties in the hotels and restaurants in Stockholm.when she was thei;e, and spreading the impression that Germany had won the war. and all the fighting was practically over.

M. MacAllistcr Smith, Who returned with his wife from his sixth regular business trip to Russia, confirmed what Mrs. Dorr hail said in regard to conditions there. "The best men in the 'country," lie said, "arc loyal to Russia, and will fight against Germany to the last ditch Hundreds of gallant officers have sacrificed their lives in a vain effort to set a good example to their men, and get them to defend their native land. Numbers of them have begged me to try and get them over to the United States so that they can join the American Army and fight against Germany." ,

'PETROGRAD CABLEGRAMS UNRELIABLE.

Mr A, E. Corbin. managing director of the Russian Automobile Engineering Co, with headquarters in Petrograd, after discounting the attitude of the extreme Socialist party of Petrograd, said: "Many of the dispatches coming to New York from Petrograd reflect only a momentary condition there, the state of affairs being changed by sudden developments before the dispatches are printed in America And what one sees and hears in Petrograd does not reveal conditions throughout Russia. Especially is this true in the. Economic field. The theorists, extremists of all kinds, politicians, and would-be leaders have flocked to Petrograd and what they do and say is one thing, while the attitude of the masses of the people outside of the city is another. There are to-day hundreds of thousands of Russian peasants who own their own land, and who therefore are not in sympathy with the extreme Socialist movement." ••' AMERICA TO BEAR BRUNT. Reports from other sources conclusively indicate that the gradual elimination of Russia in the battlefront will mean that America must bear the brunt as a consequence. Early in October an 'American arrived at Stockholm after spending ten years in Europeai capitals, cm Individual whose position compelled