RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 January 1919, Page 5

RUSSIA.

r ■ H BRITISH ADVANCE. <'

TRANS-CAUCASIAN* RAILWAY TAKEN.

Received Jan. 28, 7.50 p.m. London, Jan. 27,

The British have advanced from Baku and taken possession of the transCaueasiau railway. They also occupied Pctrovsk and Astrakhan.—Reutcr.

FATE OF ROMANOFFS. ANOTHER VERSION.

Received Jan. 28, 7.50 p.m. The Hague, Jan. 20.

Count Tolstoi, a relation of the famous writer, has given the German newspapers a new version of the Tsar's death. Ko says that while tlia Czav was living at, Ekaterinburg tlie Red Guards were informed of an attempt to be made to restore the Romanoffs. A meeting of the Guards with the local Soviet pronounced the death sentence, and the Red Guards rushed to the bedroom occupied bv the Tsar and Tsaritza. The Tsar dressed himself, and the Tsarevit li then said: "I am ready." The leader of the Red Guards roughly declared: "Our visit does not concern you alone. We intend to exterminate you, your wife, and the whole cursed brood," The leader turned to his companions and said: "Out with them! This is no time for compliments." The Tsaritza _ and Grand Duchesses, weeping convulsively and praying, were dragged to the cellars, where the whole family were shot with revolvers, the bodies being then soaked with petroleum and burned.—Times Service.

WRECKAGE AND PILLAGE. LETTLAND'S POSITION CRITICAL

Received Jan. 28, 11.50 p.m. .Stockholm. Jan. 25.

Striking details from Narva showthat the' defeated Bolsheviks left the town -wrecked, nillaged and burned, after levying heavy lines on the inhabitants. Murdered corpses are strewn in the strf-ots.

The Lettlar.d situation is very critical The BilshcviiU approached a few miles from Libau, and the Lettish Provisional Government is unlikely to be assisted from Sweden. It is now apneaiimr to the Entente, pointing out that Lettland is the last Baltic rampart asrainst Bolshevism, and the weak, raw defenders fac* a formidable invasion by the fanatical, plundering Red Guards, aided by bloodthirsty Chine?e_ and Korean mercenaries Eimea Service.

THE LEADERS' DISPUTE. Stockholm, Jan. 23. Details are leaking out of the dispute between Lenin and Trotsky, cabled on Jnnnarv • The latter, with Peters, determined to continue terrorism, without fear of intervention, believing he could convert the Allied armies to Bolshevism. Lenin favored a compromise, fen ring the Allies' economical weapon. The difference has become more acute since the Spartaeists' defeat and is nwaited with interest.—Aus.-N.Z. C.".b!e Awn.