RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1918, Page 5

RUSSIA.

ONE DAY'S MASSACRE. A TOTAL OF 10,000 BOLSHEVIKS' BLOOD LUST. Received Sept. 26, 7.50 p.m. Copenhagen, Sept. 25. Advices from Pctrograd state that.it is estimated the Bolsheviks killed a total of 10,000 in Petrograd in one day. They ordered the execution of 72 officers without specifying their names. A number of British and French officers 'have taken refuge in the American consulate under Norway's protection, The Bolsheviks posted guards round the building and demanded the surrender of the officers, but did not enter the consulate.—Reuter. SCENES OF HORROR. TERRIBLE SITUATION IN PETRjpGRACD. BRITISH stNGLED OUT FOR HiLTREATMENT. London, Sept. 25. A despatch, dated August 14, has reached London, from The Times' correspondent, Mr. Dobson, who has not been heard of for some months. His present., whereabouts and fate are unknown. The belated story vividly depicts the horror and completeness of the Russian anarchy and the terrible plight of the British, Americans, and French. It U feared the situation has become greatly worse since, as Mr. Dobson states that during August the Bolsheviks were doing everything possible to work up tho mob to fury against the Allied civilians and their condition was altogether deplorable. The British were singled out for the worst treatment. They were disqualified, outlawed, and 'arrested, their porperty and bank balances confiscated; they were reduced to absolute penury, and their homes and belongings daily searched. Imprisonment or worse overhung their he?/3s like the blade of Damocles.

The Bolshev/:s' fanatical hatred of the British is clue to the belief that the British policy controls the whole war. The official 'Bolshevik newspapers teem with accounts of a general uprising in India, rebellions in Ireland, strikes in England, and the collapse of the Empire. They accuse English troops in Russian territory of slaughtering Russians, looting, ravishing, and robbing.

Every wall and housefront in Petrograd is plastered with gigantic mobilisation proclamations calling on the workmen to enlist and save the republic from Analo-French rapacity. Russia is practically cut off from the outer world, and only tlio Murman line is working, but the telegraph officials are instructed to refuse British official and private wires. Any civilians attempting to escape by the Murmansk I and Archangel railways are shot or arrested. The British Consuls and their staffs in Petrograd and' Moscow are in equally perilous position and have been warned to be prepared for every emergency Two hundred British subjects were arrested in Moscow and subsequent released. The situation in Petrograd is terrible. Anarchy, famine, pestilence, murder, and robbery have become the common terrors of every-flay life. Men and women beg and drop in the streets from cholera and starvation. The deaths from cholera had reached 900 daily. There was not sufficient wood for coffins, and the corpses were carted to the cemeteries wrapped in newspapers, and lay uflburried for days till. the stench was frightful, for the gravediggers refused to go near, and the hated bourgeoise class were forced to dig graves.' The Red Guards promiscuously commandeered group.? in the streets and marched them to the cemeteries surrounded by bayonets, and. compelled them to dig" graves and inter the putrefying naked corpses. Many doctms, nurses, and sisters succumbed to cholera, as mendieaments were not obtainable, and the lazarettos and hospital wards were in s. state of indescribable filth and disorder. The outbreak started through the consumption of half-rotten feh. The food] situation was incessantly alarming, but the Bolsheviks persuaded their dupes that the increasing shortage was due to the advance of the Anglo-French and Czech troops. Domestic animals are disappearing, and dogs die of hunger in the streets biting the dust and gnawing the kerbstones. Dead horses are found in the streets, chopped up, and used for human food. There is much sporadic, internecine fighting and rioting in the country districts. Recently trucks of dead soldiers killed by the peasants were entrained for Petrograd. In a brief postcript, datpd August 20, Mr. Dobs'on stated that all the British feel great anxiety for their eventual fate.—-Times. v ESCAPE OP AN AMERICAN. Washington, Sept. 25. The State Department has received advice from Helsingfors that Mr. Moore has arrived safely from Moscow- The advices do not mention the French and British Consular officers, who are detained at Moscow iby the Bolsheviks.—AusN.Z. Cable Assoc.