QUIET RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 February 1920, Page 5

QUIET RUSSIA.

LAW AND ORDER PREVAILS. TRADE WITH BRITAIN WANTED. By Tdecrai*.—Press Assn.-Copyrhjnt Received Feb. 26, 11.20 p.m. London, Feb. 25. Mr. Copping, the Daily Chronicle's correspondent, who is .journeying through Russia, cables his impressions after a fortnight's close observation of Moscow. He says: "Law and order now reign unbroken and unthreatened in all the cities 1 visited. The working millions, in their abiding fear of despotism, which has ended cheerfully, put up with a grievous shortage of food and fuel. "I interviewed M. Krasin, Minister of Trade and Transport, who says Russia has immense quantities of wheat, butter, flax, hides, and other commodities avail* able for export, but the railway transport is shattered. He asks the Allies to supply locomotives, and they are willing that these and other necessities should be purchased through the Central Union of co-operators.

TOILING DAY AND NIGHT. "M. Krasin raid that when -the railway transport is in good working order the workers will surprise everybody by the volume of their output." Mr. Copping says public opinion in Western Europe and America must understand that Russia is now tranquil and orderly. The members of the Government are far from hatching schemes of robbery, spoliation, and aggression, and they are toiling day and night almost in a fanatical spirit to build up output. They state that only Russians who acquired self reliance, and business efficiency by visiting- the western democracies proved capable of handling the national helm after the Czar's death. Exiles, they are necessarily c'vtremists in Russia, and therefore they jrmped at a single bound from despotism to socialism. BAD CONDITIONS IN SIBERTA. The conditions in Siberia anl South Russia are appalling. Victims of typhus are lying about the streets, and there are masses of corpses in cemeteries being eaten by dogs. Twenty thousand were affected by spotted typhus at Omsk and four hundred were found frozen to death in their beds. Tiie chief obstacle combatting the scourge is the absence of medicines and soap. There is no scarcity of underclothing, but they cannot keep it clean. The sanitation of a vast numbc- of houses is deplorable, because the pipes burst and new ones cannot be imported A terrible cholera epidemic . threatens when the thaw comes.—Aus.-NZ. Cable

AFFAIRS IN NOR'iH RUSSIA. [ THE SURRENDER OF ARCHANGEL. Received Feb. 26, 8 p.m. London, Feb. 25. A Moscow wireless message states that Lord Curzon sent a note to M. Chicherin, stating: The Government of Northern Russia has decided it is unable to continue the fight against the Soviet, and offers to surrender Archangel. General Miller requests me to transmit his request that when the town passes into Soviet hands no violence should be made against the propertied classes or the property of the population. Lord Curzon adds: It would create a painful impression in England if the Soviet imposes severe repression on the population. M. Chicherin replied: All the northern region, including the Karelia, and the Murman region and the coast, must be surrendered; also military stores, arms, and munitions. The personal safety will be guaranteed of nil members of the army, and members of the so-called Northern Government will be allowed to leave Russia.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn, •PROPOSALS FOR PEACE. THE RE-OPENING OF TRADE. Londnn, Feb. 2*. It is understood that the Supreme Council has been considering proposals ! for peace from Lenin, which Mr. O'Grady DTought from M. Litvinoff. Le Matin states that the terms include re-opening trade between the Allies and 1 Russia, the abolition of private property in Russia, a dictatorship of the proletariat, and the supremacy of an international as opposed to what Lenin calls a capitalistic League of Nations. The Supreme Council to-day issued a communique, the main points of which have already been cabled. It adds that tha Allies have decided they cannot advise communities bordering upon the frontiers of Soviet Russia to continue war or adopt a policy of agression towards Russia, but if the Soviet attacks them inside their legitimate frontiers the Allies will give them every possible support.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. THE CAPTURE OF MURMANSK. Christian ia, Feb. 23. Refugees from Murmansk state that the Bolshevik forces which captured the town were only five thousand strongThe losses on both sides were slight.— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.