The Daily News. TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1918. PROTECTING THE MURMAN COAST.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 July 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1918. PROTECTING THE MURMAN COAST.

To most people, Murmansk and the Murman Coast are so little known thaisurprise has been felt at the action of the United States, Britain and France in sending a military expedition to this Arctic Coast of Russian Lapland, between Norway and the Wlrite Sea —the only ice free coast of European Russia north of the Crimea. To assist those who are not familiar with the importance of this region under present circumstances, it may lie stated that Kola Bay is for the time being the most interesting part of the Murman region. Mr Arthur, Pollen, writing in Land and Water with regard to this port says: The latest maps seem to give the name of Romanov and Murmanye to this latest Russian ell'ort to get access to the sea, and it is situated half-way up an inlet known as Kola Bay, which is, in fact, the estuary of the River Tuiom. It is situated about 75 miles from the Finnish and Norwegian boundary in the Varanger Fjord. Though nearly 10 degrees north of Archangel, it is not icebound in winter. It is not the lowless of temperature that makes Archangel useless in the winter months, but the fact that the southerly currents from tho Arctic Ocean combined with the prevailing winds, carry the ico floes southward into Dwina Bay, and there pack them into such masses that it is neither possible to prevent the channel being altogether blocked nor to blast nor break a channel when the block has taken place. Kola Bay is free from both these phenomena, and though the surface may freeze it seldom, if ever, attains a thickness that cannot easily -fee dealt with. The poit-is about -fiso

miles in a straight line north-north-east of Petrograd, and, although the railway from the' Russian capital is said to have been completed, it is safe In assume that both (lerniuiiy and the llolshcvik* would find Ihe problem of transport and supply very important ones if they decided to despatch strong forces against (lie Allies, tin the other hand, Kola Bay is about 1200 miles from Great Britain, and the maintenance of an Allied force there is going to add to eur already long line of communication, and cause a further increase in the demand for tonnage." The reason why the Allies took action, which resulted in the landing of forces to protect the Murman Coast and railway, was the German and Finnish troops were massing on the frontier uetv/een Finland and Russia, for the purpose of attacking the Murman railway, though the Finnish Minister in Paris denied that Finland had any such intention. That denial may have been true so far as normally Finland was concorned, but Finland tinder German domination is quite another matter. The menace evisted and the Allies could not afford to allow it to materialise. So long as Russia is helpless and comparatively quiet it is doubtful if the enemy would have much to gain by an attack upon the Murman railway, which would .be a provocative attitude calculated to rouse the Russians to resistance. If, however, the counter revolutionary movement takes place, and there is i danger of Russia again taking an active part on the side of the Allies, it will be the Germans' obvious policy to cut off all assistance from the Allies by way of the railway from the north which communicates with Russia's only ice-free port in tho west. This railway is double tracked, and, properly administered, would be capable of pouring in a flood of munitions for the use of the Russians, hence the necessity for the Allies making provision for future operations in the event of their assisting Russia to regain her former strength. The difficulties of the enterprise are not small. At the nearest point the Finnish frontier is less than one hundred miles from this railway where it passes along the western side of Lake Onega, but the nearest railway line, that which runs north from Viborg on the Gulf of Finland to Yoensun, is nearly 150 miles distant, the intervening country being a maze of swamps, lakes and forests, and without roads. If the enemy decided to advance, his natural line would be from the Yoensun railway by the north of Lake Ladoga to the western shore of Lake Onega, unless he decided to cut the lino at 'Petrograd. The counter stroke of the Russians would either be to paralyse the enterprise by an advance from Petrograd to Viborg or to send troops to Lake Onega. It would, however, be necessary in the first place to render the Bolsheviks powerless, and then the Allies could send assistance by way of the railway from Ekaterinn, harbor. It will be seen, therefore, that the agreement with the Murmansk Council has a very important bearing on the welfare of Russia, and that the Allies have thereby given a very great inducement to the saner Russians to make a determined bid for freedom from German nomination and tyranny.