The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1917. THE RUSSIAN CRISIS.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 November 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1917. THE RUSSIAN CRISIS.

The Russian crisis is by no means over. If anything, it is more desperate. The other day it seemed as if the conbined forces of Kerensky, Korniloff and Kaledin {the Cossack leader) had triumphed over those of the Socialistic extremists, and that, consequently, the nation was about to put its house in order. Now, it looks as if the Maximalists and Leninites still hold Petrograd, and that Kerensky has failed to make any impression on the rival forces. News is meagre find contradictory. The telegraphs have beer cut, and there has been no communication with the outside world for several days. Events, as this morning's cable state, are wrapped in mystery. Fighting, however, is going on, it being alleged that two thousand were killed at Moscow, whilst (veritable pogroms (massacres) have, it is reported, taken, place at Kieff and other cities. Events in this distressed country are taking a course that must be particularly gratifying to the Germans, who are at the bottom of all this division and revolt. Their agents and. spies have, up to the present, done their work only too well. The hope for the Allies is that they will overreach themselves, and cause a reaction in favor of a settled national government. The difficulty is that the great masses of Russia are so ignorant and easily led. Better material for their purpose the Germans could not have. The officers and official classes realise the dangers besetting their country, but they are in a minority, and so far have not been able to circumvent the propaganda of the Socialist extremists, who are subsidised, no doubt, by German gold—or bank notes. It is stated the intention Is to form a social revolutionary coalition government, representing all parties, with the exception of the well-to-do, who, forming the educated classes, are best able to guage the issues and guide the country in this time of peril. The possession of riches or properties in Eua« sia at present is a heinous crime. Those in that position must be dispossessed and cast into the outer darkness. The Leninites and Maximalists, and the Huns behind them, know well enough that the party to fear is the educated element, and they are determined to give it no chance of being heard. It is not surprising to learn that the first task of this coalition Government is to make peace with Germany. With the three K's in the saddle—Kerensky, Korniloff and Kaledin—there will be no retiring from the war, and Germany knows it. Hence the activities of the extremists. The fraticidal conflict now taking place is a great tragedy, and a blow to the Allies, but it may have the effect of clearing the air, and purging Russia of her baser elements. The immediate

prospects certainly do not encourage this view, but in Russia we have seen anything happen in a very short time. One thing we may be certain of, and that is that the war will be very greatly lengthened if Russia goes out of it. In the first place, the enemy forces now employed in defending the line would be free for other fronts, and this would mean an incrtaae to their western forces

of about a couple of million men, nullifying all the advantage of the increased British and American power. Roumania would be "left," and have to make tho best terms possible with the enemy. The effectiveness of the British blockade would be immediately destroyed, for the enemy would be able to secure all the supplies in foodstuffs and materials for war purposes from Russia. As for help from Japan and China, that would avail nothing, for the simple reason that they could not be employed on the Russian front, which would npt exist, and sufficient ships cannot be found to bring them by sea. These are facts we do no good by hiding from ourselveß. We ea'ti only hope that Russia will pull herself together sufficiently to offer some form of resistance to the enemy, and so enable us to break her on the we3t, an undertaking we now realise more than ever is no light one, and cannot be accomplished in a few months.

THE STRATFQRD-OKAHUKURA LINE. The statement made in the annual report of the Minister of Puublic Works concerning the stoppage of construction work on the railway when the line was completed to Tahora, about Christmas next, oaiua as a most unpleasant surprise, and it is not surprising that the subject Bhould have been ventilated, at the recent meeting of the Stratford Chamber of Commerce, which body gratefully recognised the services of Mr. C. A. Wilkinson, MP, in entering a protest against the decision to stop the work of construction beyond Tahora for some years, and the chamber unanimously resolved to protest against a course so detrimental to the welfare of Taranaki and its ocean port at New Plymouth. This line, which has been slowly extended from Stratford to Whangamomona, and is now nearly completed to Tahora, opens up some very productive country, the development of which has been greatly retarded by lack of transport facilities. The settlers beyond the railhead have been waiting more or less patiently for many years for railway facilities, and now that the line has crept nearer to their holdings, their hopes are suddenly dashed to the ground by the Minister's statement. In his able summary of the position, whon bringing the matter before the chamber, Mr. R. Masters took a broad view of the matter, not as affecting Stratford, but as one affecting the Oliura district, the province and the port of New Plymouth, and he contrasted the importance of the completion of the railway with that of the line round the Mountain. No one who is conversant with both districts can doubt that the line through the Ohura is of greater importance than that round the mountain, for it must be remembered that in the case of the mountain railway it supplies a district already possessing serviceable roads, while in the case of the Ohura the reverse is the case. The action of the department in holding up construction work on the line reaching Tahora is one that defies justification, and should certainly be contested strenuously, with a view to the withdrawal of the expressed intention of the department. Every chamber of commerce and every public body in the province should make its voice heard in a vigorous protest against this stoppage of construction works. The decision for a halt of some years bears the appearance of an official intimation that the line is not justified. Never was a railway more needed, while its prospects of financial success are beyond question. As Mr. Masters pointed out, the Ohura is one hundred miles nearer the port of New Plymouth than Auckland, so that in railing their products for shipment overseas the settlers would reap the advantages of the lesser charges, while the shipment of the produce at Moturoa by direct ocean-going vessels would materially assist the port, and help to improve its facilities. When the Ohura has been fully developed it will be a most productive district, and its trade will be a factor in the progress and prosperity of Taranaki. It has to be recognised that the present time is not opportune for raising loans, for public works, and that the prosecution of the war demands all our efforts, while there ia no money to spare out of revenue. But to hold up a most important railway for some years is beyond all reason. The matter is one that should not be allowed to drop out of sight, but every effort should be made to induce the Government to sanction further work on this line, and not to come to a halt.