RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1918, Page 5

RUSSIA.

BETWEEN TWO FIRES. BOLSHEVIKS' REIGN OF TERROR. AN OMINOUS OUTLOOK. Received August 16, 12.0 p.m. London, August 15. The Daily Chronicle's Stockholm correspondent states that a diplomat from Petrograd, interviewed, says tiiat the population is unnerved by rumors, and await the future with terror, because the Bolsheviks, seeing they are nearing their reign's end, may commit nirocities surpassing those of any previous rulers. -

The diplomat says that Lenin, when addressing the last' meeting of the Executive, declared: "We may be compelled to leave, but we shall close the door behind us with such force that they will long remember us."

The Bolsheviks feel they are caught between two fires. They fear the German occupation of Petrograd and also the Entente push a,t Murman. The Bolsheviks threaten all the direst penalties to anyone spreading disquiet, ing rumors. Conversation in public is carried on mostly in whispers, owing to the fear of espionage. Telegraphic communication with the Entente countries has ceased. ~

Tho Entente proclamation referring to the purpose of the Murman and Via-. divostock expeditions is not yet known. A state of siege has been proclaimed over a vast area, but nothing can prevent the approaching Bolshevik catastrophe—Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assoc.

SITUATION BECOMING VyORSE. ARMED BAOTS RISING. Stockholm, August 15 Advices from Helsingfors state that the Bussian situation is steadily becoming worse. The Bolshevik reign is near its end and the peasant rising is increasing. Armed 'bands have been organised to fight the Bolsheviks and the movement, is spreading to the towns. The reported flight of Lenta and Trotsky is apparently true. Other reports state that the German march to Petrograd has begun.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assoc. ,

GERMANY DRIVING FINNS,

1 TO ATTACK ALLIES. , Washington, August 15. In consequence of the Russian situation, the three last Allied Consuls at Moscow have asked for a safe conduct to Archangel. The State Department has received reliable unofficial advice from Stockholm saying that the" Finnish Government ha 3 been given two weeks by Germany in which to prepare an army to advance on Murmansk, where the Allies have established a military base—AusN.Z. Cable Assoc.

ALLIES TO THE RESCUE. N«w York, August 15, British troops have reached Baku on the Caspian American troops are linked at Vladivostok. It is understood the Japanese will strike westward from Bartin in order to rescue the Czechoslovaks m the Lake Baikal region.— AU9.-N.Z. Cable' Assoc.

SOVIETS WITHOUT AUTHORITY. Amsterdam, August 15. Reports from Sweden state that the flight from Petrograd of Soviets to Kronstadt was due to the peasant bands in the neighbourhood marching on the capital.

Izvestia, the official Bolshevik newspaper, admits that the Soviet organisation has collapsed and that the Soviets no longer possess authority—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assoc.

GERMAN SHERIFF MURDERED. - Amsterdam, August 14. Riga reports that Social Revolutionaries have assassinated General von Sengbuscli, tho German sheriff in the Wenden district of Livonia, the murderer escaped.—Aus.-N.Z. CaMe Assoc. .

BOLSHEVISM DOOMED. PEASANTS CLAMORING FOR FOOD. Stockholm, August 15. Armed hands of peasants are marching on Petrograd clamoring for food. The Soviet Government has issued a proclamation declaring that the Republic is endangered. The Soviet authority is failing throughout Russia. Armed marauding peasant bands are gaining the upper hand in many districts, and Bolshevism is doomed, but it is impossible to forecast the form of Government likely to emerge from chaos in Russia. Karelia is in a state of complete anarchy. Starvation and robbing are rife, and the whole .population are armed in self defence.—Aus.-N.Z. OaUe Assoc.