The Daily News. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1918. HUN CHICANERY AND BOLSHEVIK TREACHERY.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1918. HUN CHICANERY AND BOLSHEVIK TREACHERY.

Although the civilised world has for some time past been aware of the treachery of Lenin and Trotsky in acting as paid German agents, and basely selling their country to the enemy, the latest disclosures, which have just been released for publication, afford clear and emphatic testimony to the depths of infamy to which the German authorities have descended and dragged with them such miserable tools and traitors as Lenin and Trotsky. At the same time it is only to be expected that a nation ruled by men who glory in disregarding all eanons of honor and international law, and act fla flffJudeoasdictnm thatthe end.

justifies the means, should have no scruple in following' the course which placed Russia in their power. It is matter for regret that these disclosures were not made known to the Eussian people and to the world at a much earlier date, though there is an ominous significance in their appearance at the present juncture, when Germany is mailing a pretended bid for peace. What peace could be thought of in the light of their exposure? The New York Tribune gives the answer in these words: "This German thing we are resolved to destroy is a criminal outlaw who cannot be parleyed with. Our business with the enemy is to get him, dead or alive, though we go to Berlin to do it." But for German chicanery, Russia would today have gone a long way towards becoming a great democratic country, though Germany would have, long ere this, bitten the dust of humiliation. She had a double object in using the Bolshevik leaders to serve her unscrupulous endsone was to defeat her enemies and levy huge indemnities, and the other was to lay the foundations of an eastern empire that would give her the command of the world. This colossal gamble had, from the Teutonic point of view, every element of success. Russia having passed out of the war, the release of the German troops from that theatre would enable the massing on the western front of sufficient troops to defeat the ■ Franco-British forces, and the rest would be easy. "Where these archconspirators failed was in underestimating American action, and the effect of unity in the command of the Franco-British forces. What is the result? To-day Germany finds, to her bitter cost, that in spite of all her devilish scheming she is being gradually crushed under the weight of her enemies' blows, while the awful terrorism in Russia, which was to facilitate German ends, is leading to a compulsory rallying of the law-abid-ing elements, as well as of the enemies of German rule, with a view to putting an end to a state of affairs that has become a blot on civilisation. The publication of the documents incriminating the Bolshevik leaders and the German Government in the most barefaced betrayal of the Russian peopie should give a powerful impetus to the elimination of Bolshevism, as well as to a determination to cast off the German yoke, the imposition of which is directly due to the treachery of the Bolshevik leaders. It is almost impossible for even the most philosophical person to grasp the full meaning of these disclosures without feeling the pulse quickening with righteous indignation and wrath. Most of us thought we had a fairly accurate idea of German chicanery, but it is reasonable to assert that the disclosures are such as place Hun infamy on a far lower scale than was ever thought possible. Lenin and Trotsky proved just the pliant and treacherous tools that Germany needed. Hence, having made it worth while to the traitors, the Brest Litovsk treaty was cunningly engineered, and the betrayal of Russia became a fact. Thenceforward Russia was misgoverned in the interests of Germany, and the Bolsheviki have not only been made to ship German spies to the Allied countries with false Russian passports, but Russians have acted as spies for the Kaiser. The seventy documents containing the disclosures "all fit perfectly into the pattern of German intrigue and guilt." For fifty-five million roubles Russia was sold to the Huns, five million of that sum being the price for obtaining possession of Japanese and American war material at Vladivostock, or for the destruction of that material. Every detail of German action was worked out and provided for, even to cheating the Bolsheviks with respect to the Ukraine. The lifting of the veil has shown how, more than ever, it is imperative that the Allies rid the world of this nest of Hun conspirators, who not only boast of their insatiable ambition, but resort to the most foul and. degrading;' methods for attaining their -.ls. The civilised world eamii.: '.,rcathe freely until these vampire fiends are accounted for. The slayers of the dragon are coming within sight of the deed that will for ever, let us hope, end the ravages of the loathsome monsters of evil.