RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 December 1917, Page 5

RUSSIA.

POSITION OF JEWS. , ! NOTHING TO HOPE FOR. '■'! FROM RUSSO-GERMAN NEGOTIA- ' HONS. BOLSHEVIKS INIMICAL TO JEWS:' Reuter Service. Received Dec. 28, 5.5 p.m. The Hague, Dei. 27. The Jewish Correspondence Bureau has issued a communique from Zurich, stating that three million Jews in Poland and Galicia have nothing to hope for from the Russo-German peace negotiations. The fact that the Bolshevik leaders dislike the Jews is the greatest danger for the Jewry, because the Bolsheviks believe they cannot prove their internationalism better than by combating Jewish nationality. The communication points out that Trotsky refused to protect the Jews from the pogroms which are proceeding, while Germany haß not abolished the special laws enacted against Jews in Poland. THE BREST CONFERENCE. CZERNIN'S POSTULATES. fk> MERE CATCHY PHRASES, Amsterdam, Dee. 27. Count Czernin, presiding at Uie plenary meeting of the Russo-German peace delegates, declared: ! *' (1) The Central Powers did not in--tend to violently annex the regions occupied during the war. The withdrawal of troops from these regions coilld ibe arranged for in the peace treaty in ihe' : event of failure to agree on certain' points before the treaty was signed. (2) The Central Powers had no intention qf depriving of political InAe-, pendenoe any nation which had independence. (3) The problem of deciding to which Power any State which did not possess political independence should belong would not be solved internationally, but by the individual State. (4) The safeguarding of minorities must be the right of every nation to decide its own destiny. (5) The Central Powers had repeatedly declared that no indemnities should be paid by either aide paying only the exi pen see of its respective war prisoners and compensation to civilian prisoners. The special fund for this purpose suggested by Russia should oitly be considered if tlie other belligerents participated in the peace negotiations within a reasonable period. THE PEACE CONFERENCE. GERMANS WANT GENERAL PEACE. MUST HAVE COLONIES. RUSSIA TO COMPEL ALLIES TO NEGOTIATE. Received Dec. 29, 1.55 a.m. London, Dec. 28. The Daily Chronicle's Petrograd correspondent states that Count Czernin, at the peace conference, professed no grept anxiety for a separate peace with sia. The trend of the conversations show that Germany only looks upon tlie negotiations as a means for opening intercourse with the Allies, with the object of a general peace, hence«the German delegates insist they must have the colonies back. They will rot admit the idea of a referendum among the The Germans now insist that the Rua r<l siana must act as intermediaries with the object of compelling' the Allies to join in the negotiations, and if the refuse, they will occupy strategic points; in the Russian theatre as a guarantee. REVOLUTIONARY PROPAGANDA. A STEELE CALLED. Petrograd, Dae. 27. The Council of Commissaries hag assigned two million roubles for revolutionary propaganda in foreign countries. The municipal employees at Petrograd are calling a strike embracing hospitals, water supply and food. The situation in the city is worse, and a famine is threatened in a week's time. : A WHOLESALE GUILLOTINE. FOR DECAPITATING 506 AT ONCE. Petrograd, Dec. 27. An engineer has submitted to the People's Commissaries a perfected guillotine, electrically worked, capable of decapitating 600 victim* sunttltaneoMsiy.