WAR ON REDS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1921, Page 5

WAR ON REDS.

THE REVOLT IN RUSSIA. V-' . NEWS OF RISING CONFIRMED. , .... - ACUTE FAMINE PREVAILS, By Telegraph.—Press Assn.— Copyright. Received March 3, 8.35 p.m. London, March 2. After discrediting the Helsingfors reports of an anti-Bolshevik revolution in Russia, the Foreign Office has received reliable information tending to confirm the risings, and it now admits the possibility of most serious complications in Russia.

The Daily Telegraph states that there is great famine, and in consequence the protracted civil war is abominable. Maladministration has gone so far that eyen Communist adherents and “Red” soldiers are no longer preserved from hunger. Another factor is the breakdown of railway transport, due to mismanagement, and colossal snowstorms. The whole of Northern Russia is suffering acutely from hunger, and there have been 2000 deaths from starvation in Petrograd since the New Year.—Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn. Received March 3, 9.30 p.m. London, March 3. There are various accounts from Petrograd, one stating that mutinous warships bombarded the capita, while another, apparently later, asserts that the Government has regained control. —Aus. and N.Z Cable Assn. f PICTURE OF RUSSIA TO-DAY. THE SOVIET SYSTEM DESCRIBED. TYPHUS NO LONGER RAGING. Received March 3, 8.10 p.m. London, March 2. Mr. Tom Skeyhill, a Victorian, has just returned from Russia, after a threj months’ adventurous tour through Petrograd, Moscow and Kieff. He reached Petrograd, sleighing the frozen Baltic, and using a forged passport as a Swedish engineer he managed to feed himself by giving Russian friends English and American gold, which he used as a bribe to the peasants to supply dairy produce and other foods. Fifteen pounds sufficed to make Mr. Skeyhill a rouble millionaire. He states that the workers in Russia are paid in goods, Soviet food kitchens in Petrograd alone supplying 300,000 Workers. Everyone must work for the Soviet or starve. The workers no longer control the factories. Each factory is now run by a committee of three, including a technical expert, a representative of the workers and a representative of the local Soviet. Typhus is no longer raging, and everyone who had it is now immune. Practically all the girls in Petrograd have their hair cut, showing that they had typhus. The stories of the nationalisation of women are untrue. Moscow is the soul of the Soviet system, and the chief political element is the Extreme Left, led by Zinovief, who is against trade with any country and conciliation of any kind. Lenin and Trotsky lead the middle group, and favor conciliation, even with anti-Bolsheviks. Lenin even favors summoning a constituent assembly. The Extreme Right is led by Lunacharsky, .Commissioner fot Education, who generally supports Lenin. •Mr. Skeyhill considers there is no chance of Bolshevism breaking down; nothing takes its place in Russia.—Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn.