RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 July 1918, Page 5

RUSSIA.

j IN THE CRIP OF CHOLERA. EFFORTS TO CHECK DISEASE. Received July IG, 7.40 p.m. Stockholm, July 15. A steamer from Petrograd arrived with five cases of Asiatic cholera aboard. One ease died. The authorities at Petrograd are making elVorts to prevent the spread of tlie disease. Several hundred deaths occur daily, the greater part of Russia being in the grip of the disease.—Press Assoc. ESCAPE OF KERENSKY. TALE OF RUSSIAN ANARCHY. ALLIED ASSISTANCE URGED. (Delayed CaMe.) London, June 28. Before leaving for England, ICerensky lived with the peasants near PetrogTad, and grew a beard and moustache in order to disguise himself sufficiently to enable him to leave Russia. At present he is confining himself to propagating the lessons of the revolution among the Allies, and is urging the Allies to send armed assistance and supplies to Russia to enable the Russians to drive out the Germans. He does not think that the Allies should dictate a form of government for Russia, which doe 3 not want to hav'e to choose between Germany and some other country, but wants freedom, which is unattainable under Bolshevism. In hi 9 address to the International Labor Conference, Kerajisky said that he Was present as a matter of duty as a man who knew all the truth which had not reached WeSetern Enrope. The interests of the Allied countries were .inextricably interwoven, and the fate of Russia, which had borne such a groat burden in the war, could not be a matter of indifference to the Allies. The Russian people in the past had experienced trials like the present, but had always emerged from them strengthened and renewed. "Now," said M- Kerensky, "bending under the merciless insults of Germany, who is baeking up her own interests by the most reactionary methods, Russia today, bleeding at every pore, is still opposing the enemy's invasion." (Cheers.) TREACHEROUS CALLS TO PEACE. M. Kerenesky continued: I bear witness that the Russian people will never recognise the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which hurled Russia into an abyss of annihilation. For three years the Russian soldiers, sometimes without arms or munitions, in a condition which none outside Russia could imagine, had to fight an enemy perfectly equipped and cruelly remorseless. The Russian soldiers, however, were the first to faint in the great struggle. The great Russian revolution exalted their courage, but could not immediately infuse life into them. It is a thousand pities that the warning voices coming from Russia were not heeded at the time by the Western AllicV. The treadierous calls to peace by Germany were not unmasked, and the mass of the Russian soldiery, importuned by German agents, were "taken in" by these false appeals, only to have placed on their backs all the bitterness and horrors of a German peace. EV 7 ILS OF UiiLSHEVIK. DICTATORsmip. Kerensky proceeded to disclose the German machinations • in the Ukraine, where interests were continually being played' off against other interests, and many of the rights obtained by revolution were withdrawn by the dictatorship, despite every protest of the proletariat. lie was astonished that any serious European political people should consider the Bolsh<>jik regjme as democratic. It deposed the Constituent Assembly, abolished the freedom of speech, made Red Guardsman, destroyed liberty, and had withdrawn the right of self-govern-njent from the workmen's councils. If these methods of dealing with the population are considered democratic, said Kerensky, what is tie essence and characteristic feature of a genuine re'action? (Laughter.) The Bolsheviks, he continued, were responsible for the present state of Russia and the creation of the dictatorship which had become a relentless oppres" sion. It might be asked how these conditions were maintainable if the whole population was opposed to them. STRENGTH IN DISORGANISATION. This was partly attributable to the international conditions of warfare, vut mainly due to Bolshevism, whose strength lay an disorganisation of the, worn-out masses of solders, whose declining morale eventually became the vanguard of a triumphant German Imperialism. At present it was to the advantage of (Germany to maintain disorganisation and anarchy throughout Russia. To 'reach her aim, Germany must paralyse tho Russian centre, and therefore the fate of the Russian people was of special j significance and value to the whole world. Kerensky concluded: Russia will never of her own will submit to the imperialism of Brest-Litovsk, and it is for you, as the oldest and most matured of democracies, 1o settle the question as to whether it is or is not possible to remain a grim spectator of this tragedy. Possibly to-morrow calumny and slander will recommence their activities, and attempts will !be mado to deny the truth I have spoken. IBut I would not have travelled thousands of miles to tell the Western nations a single word which I did not know to be absolutely true. (Loud cheers-)