WAR ON REDS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 March 1921, Page 6

WAR ON REDS.

CONFUSED REPORTS. FINAL RESULT UNCERTAIN. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, March 9. Russian reports continue to be confused. It is stated the important fortress of Karsnayogorks has sided with the revolt and has begun to bombard Petrograd. Firing from Kronstadt has attained great violence, but even antiSoviet quarters expect the fortress soon to surrender, unless outside co-opera-tion is forthcoming. Sanguinary street fighting is reported in Moscow, wher£ the Soviet is Tiding liquid fire. REBELS HOLD PETROGRAD. SOVIET CONTROLS THE ROADS. Helsingfors, March 9. Fierce fighting continues in Petrograd, which is entirely in the hands of the revolutionaries. Trotsky and Zinivieff are defending the prison of St. Peter and St. Paul and Brusiloff is organising the Soviet troops at Petrograd. He ordered a regiment, consisting of Bashku Finns and Chinese mercenaries to clear the streets. The Bashkus refused to fire and 1 joined the revolutionaries after attacking the Chinese. the Soviets holdall roads leading to Petrograd. The Soviet’s infantry in an attempt to retake Kronstadt were beaten back over the ice. Kerensky is expected at Reval shortly and it is reported from Petrograd that the Soviet officials are ready to leave at any moment. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

SEMENOFF TAKES OFFENSIVE. London, March 9. The Grand Duke Michael has joined Semenoff’s counter-revolutionaries in Siberia who have taken the offensive against the Reds and captured 5000 prisoners and’2B guns. “REVOLUTION WILL FAIL.” London, March 9. Mr. Tom Skeyhill, an Australian who recently returned from Russia, thinks the counter-revolution has been prematurely precipitated, and that it will probably be unsuccessful, because food constitutes power in Rfissia and the Bolsheviks hold the food. Kronstadt will be easily isolated and starved and similarly Petrograd. The Bolsheviks could then bring up mercenaries and exterminate the revolutionaries, even if they were temporarily successful. The counter-revolution only means that Russia is out of the frying-pan into the fire, because the Whites are just as incapable as the Reds of constructive government. It would merely mean the Balkanising of Russia. ESTHONIAN DELEGATES ARRESTED. Copenhagen, March 9. Trotsky has arrested the officials of the Esthonian delegation to Petrograd.