THE PUZZLE OF RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 January 1918, Page 3

THE PUZZLE OF RUSSIA.

GERMAN DIFFICULTIES. BRITAIN REGAINING FAVOB. London, Jan. (i. ' "11. is iliflicult to tall; sober sense about tlio peace negotiations,'' says tlio Daily Chronicle's correspondent at l'etro•grtul. "The Germans, after creating a Frankenstein for their own purposes, are considerably perplexed by bis antics. They came expecting to reap the harvest sown by their secret agents. Their elaborate espionage and corruption led to the disorganisation of Russia, and to icr collapse as a military power. Then Ihev deliberately performed the comedy of opening peace negotiations with the people whom they cynically regarded as their own agents, but now tliey find that those people have wild ideas of their own and that tireir previous ?o-operation was double edged. The Bolsheviks, allowing Germany to use them for her ends, did so with a fixed determination to use Germany for theirs. The Germans are now bitterly reflecting upon the proverb about "Supping with a long spoon: I admit that I do not understand the Bolsheviks. I do not mean the ignorant masses, nor the army subordinates, including besides a number of idealists and a motley crowd of the most thoroughpaced scoundrels, but Lenin and Trotzky are a mystery. The game they are playing is wild beyond belief. If it is difficult for the allies, it is at least as difficult for the Germans. Russia, having ceased to fight, finds new means for self-defence. The most virulent form of anarchy prevails in Russia. It is fiercely destructive, and is causing untold suffering. "Why this Rjge of destruction, why the senseless cruelty which impels the looting persons to skin the landowners'cattle alive and send them bellowing pitifully down the road? lam not dwelling on the details of the anarchy, but I point out that it increases tenfold Germany's difficulties. She stands aghast at the result of her own efforts. Wo need not lose liope. All who care for Russia and lor her future must take long views. Russia will not any more. The equilibrium of the war has been violently shaken by her defection, out that does not mean that the war is lost. With a clear purpose and a steady 1 brain it is still possible to save all the values worth saving. "The Bolshevik organ, Lzvestia, has ceased its diatribes against England. The Cadets and the Social Revolutionaries now 'bitterly attack the German Imperialists, condemning the German oppression of the working classes in Poland, Lithuania, and Couifland. It* declares that Russia must repudiate Germany's terms. "Tlie Bolsheviks express surprise and indignation that Germany, while admitting the principle of no annexations, refuses to withdraw her troops from the occupied territories, declaring that the latter have already asserted tiieii Independence. The Bolsheviks withheld these terms for a week, until it \va s impossible longer to conceal them. They now admit that the Brest-Litovsk negotiations were a failure, and that the German terms formed an impossible basis of peace. "The Germans at the conference at Petrograd seem to assume that they have only to arrange the technical details of the peace treaty. They insist on Tift i n . mediate establishment of railway and commercial intercourse and exchange of war prisoners. The Russians xtroiHv object, pointing out up to the present tat they only agreed to discuss technicalities relating to the armistice. Dr. Kaempff. a German delegate, declared that war prisoners would not be released until the conclusion of a general peace "At the meeting of the Soviet last night, >l. Kamencff announced that the Germans terms were unacceptable. Thereupor the representatives of one armv after another declared that the soldier's would not, could not, fight. Russia, unless a miracle happens, stands faced with the certainty of a humiliating separate peace, dictated by the Germans. The. Bolsheviks still try to evade the issue, i hey promise a revolution in Poland and hint at the possibiltiy of a revolution m Germany. Also they print revolutionary leaflets in German and Magyar which are confiscated immediately on arrival in the enemy, lines."