VLADIVOSTOCK'S VAST SUPPLIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 March 1918, Page 2

VLADIVOSTOCK'S VAST SUPPLIES.

IN PRO-ALLY HANDS. JAPAN LOOKED TO FOB. .PROTECTION. The latest reports from Russia indicate that Vladivostok, with the rich region around it, has separated itself from the Bolsheviki and is setting up an independent Government (writes G. P. Conger, formerly Y.M.C.A. secretary in war prisons in Eastern Siberia, in the Xew York Times). What happens to the city and the surrounding district is of importance just now for two reasons—first, the immense accumulation of munitions and supplies piled up at the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway; second, the large numbers of prominent German and Austrian officers hold throughout tlio district as prisoners of war. It is Raid this summer that there was freight enough at Vladivostok to keep the railroad running, at what had previously been its full capacity, for seven years, before the last box or bale could be set dowti in Petrograd or Moscow. Long ago the steady stream of supplies from Japan and America filled all available warehouses to overflowing, and the authorities were obliged to utilise vacant spaces wherever they could be found in or around the city. On one such lot along the principal street a large consignment of American agricultural machinery lay for months, exposed to the weather. In the roadway of an adjoin* ing street was a long double line of wooden crates covered with canvas; the crates contained American automobiles of two well-known makes. Great quantities of ammunition wore handled at Vladivostok. One night just before the Russian revolution of last March there was a big explosion in one of the sheds, with enough shrapnel bursting against the sky to make a good-sized battle. Despite the official denial of the report that Japanese troops are on f" in Vladivostoek, all through the unsettled months following thc'rcvolution, the people of Eastern Siberia hove expected Ov Japan would step in and take charge if anything went wrong.' It was popularly believed that a Japanese fleet was even waiting just outside the harbor. This belief did a great deal to maintain order, and to offset the influence of the thousand or mo're future Bolshiviki who passed through Vladivostoek on iheir way home after their political exile in America. Their return at the Provisional Government's expense was-Kerensky's. first and perhaps his greatest mistake. In the first days of the revolution the Russians, with fine enthusiasm, looled to America as their ideal of democracy. But the returning anarchists spread from Vladivostoek to other places further away from the (restraining thought of Japan, and began an insidious propaganda among their less-travelled countrymen against the "capilalistie" Government of the United States. This propaganda combined with German influence has resulted in the Bolsheviki upheaval.

There has been some vtneesinesa, iit view of the possibility of peace between the Bolshcvikf and the Central Powers, lest a large number of prisoners of war should bo returned to the latter and be available for military service along with the great armies which would be released from the Eastern front. In this connection it is worth noting that, since the district around Vladivostoek is the fur. thest from the front of any district to which large numbers of men could be transported, the tendency up to this time has been to concentrate there the German and Austrian prisoners of highest rank and greatest desirability. The Russians, have not made the mistake which America bids fair to make, of keeping such men in important port towns, but have located them behind large stockades in cities back from the coast. In the Amur district, north of Vladivostoek there are thousands of officer prisoners—probably more officers than private soldiers. The officers who have recently come there are younger and show clearly enough where the Austrian army, at least, has become weakened, but in addition to these there are a large number of highly placed staff officers and members of noble families who were captured earlier in the war and whose return to Germany and Austria at this time 'would be a noteworthy advantage to those countries. They have been treated so well during their captivity that many of them could take their places at the council table or in the field hardly the worse for their experience Their return in anything resembling the near- firture is, however,- only a remote possibility. Tf peace between the Bolsheviks and the Central Powers were concluded to-morrow, and even if the Bolsheviks controlled the whole of Russia and Siberia, the chances are that America would still have time to turn the balance of war before these men cojild reach Germany or Austria. A favorite subject of discussion in the prison camps of these officers is this: If it took the Russians eleven months to get her Japanese prisoners to Japan after the peace of 1005, how much longer will it take her to get perhaps twenty times as many men to Germany and Austria after the present war is over? When one considers the magnitude of the problem and the present state of the Russian transportation system as well as the general disorganisation in all branches of Russian public life, there seems no ground for apprehension on this score. The news from Vladivostoek merely makes assurance doubly sure. The sentiment of the people of this portion of Siberia is in the main strongly pro-Ally; their declaration of independence, as reported, shows that they do not intend to hand over either munitions or prisoners to make a German holiday. Yet they are so thoroughly Russian at heart that it is impossible for one who knows them to think of them as remaining independent of a Russian Government representing the best elements in Russia. Their independence must be uieant only as a temporary measure.

Their natural inclinations will be strengthened through nearness of the. Japanese. Since the Russian-Japanese agreement of a year ago, which opened Siberia to Japanese colonists, the relations between the two nations have been friendly. It would not be surprising ,jf Japanese troops were called for to extend protection to several Eastern Siberian cities and to Harbin in Manchuria, in order effectively to cut off all the -ailroads and rivers of Eastern Siberia from possible service to the Bolsheviks, and ultimately to the enemy. At the same time, it, must be granted that without the full consent of all elements in the Russian mix'-up it would be a Imut and difficult job to transport Japane- 'mops to the Eastern front. Under <'.■ •>*(; conditions, the Siberian lExnrcss vets across the 8800 miles from Vladivostok to Petrograd in ten days and nights; a **oo* train in more likely to Ma from

twenty to thirty days. The slightest disturbance might, of course, upset the whole operation. As to lack of proper planning in railroad equipment and operation, the following is an illustration: At a great plant above Vladivostok lfi.ooo freight ears from America were assembled in a few months last year—an achievement in which the Russians surprised even themselves. The cars were built on the American model, but with the Russian gauge, and with a substantial iron railing the whole length of the running boards on top, to keep the brakemen from falling off. Each of these ears is from four to six times as large, and must weigh ten or fifteen times as much, an the ordinary Russian freight car; the trains leaving Vladivostoek for European Russia have usually been short, since the Russian locomotives and bridges are not made for such heavy rolling stock. This is one reason why so few of the big cars over made a return trip. There has been some talk in Eastern Siberia of a Japanese army's marching across the Continent, after the manner of Ghenghis or Kublai Khan. This last is perhaps not impossible; but it wdtild be more to the point to find hope in the Russians themselves.