---
title: 'Earliest reports of Bolshevism in Australian newspapers'
url: 'https://samisdat.in/books/earliest-reports-of-bolshevism-in-australia-1920/read'
markdown: 'https://samisdat.in/books/earliest-reports-of-bolshevism-in-australia-1920/read.md'
lang: en
date: '1920-01-01'
description: 'Russian Facts. "THESE UNUTTERABLE SWINE." British Officer''s Opinion of Bolsheviks. Sapper (author of "Sergeant Michael Cassidy"; Men, Women and Guns, etc.) writes to the editor of the Daily Mail, At the present moment, when industrial trouble is rife, and, at any rate, some of us fear that even in …'
---

## Russian Facts. "THESE UNUTTERABLE SWINE."

### British Officer's Opinion of Bolsheviks.

Sapper (author of "Sergeant Michael Cassidy"; Men, Women and Guns, etc.) writes to the editor of the Daily Mail,

At the present moment, when industrial trouble is rife, and, at any rate, some of us fear that even in this country the fanatics are 'riding for a fall," it may be of interest to give a small extract out of a letter I have recently received from a senior officer serving in the British Military Mission to South Russia.

This officer has no idea that I am quoting from his letter, but, in view of the tendency in some quarters to regard Bolshevism as merely a political creed, I have no hesitation in violating the secrecy of a private communication. My only regret is that, for obvious reasons, I cannot give his name as a proof of goodwill.

He writes as follows:-

"I don't know what stunt you're on, but if it's the journalistic touch, why not come out here and do a bit of writing up? By heavens, there's plenty to do, and plenty to write about. There is not one single horrible, bestial thing that men (and women) have the power to do that these unutterable swine, the Bolsheviks, have not done. Burning women alive, and then cutting them free when just not dead—particular case I'm thinking of was a very pretty woman in Russian Petrograd society before who is now a charred wreck, and no crime except being a 'bourgeoise.'

"At Kieff, just captured, 37 Bolsheviks shut themselves up in a room with 5 women and girls, the youngest being 14 years old. All five are now lunatics.

"Just before it was taken the Bol

before it was sheviks shot close on 500 men, women, and boys no crime except that they were 'bourgeois' or 'had the appearance of a bourgeois,' or 'were of independent demeanour.' The bodies were being ex humed from the common pit into which they were thrown on the 9th September. They had then got about 100 out.

'In this particular case none of these bodies up to then had showed signs of torture, but this was not the case with the bodies of those 'murdered just be fore Kharkoff was taken by us. There most of the well-known forms of physi cal torture were in evidence; including knotted cord round head, filling with water, mutilation, skinning alive.

'Mioral torture is also used quite a lot, the usual tiling being to puT men condemned to be murdered into cells with others, who do not know their fate, out to be shot. It is said that in Kiuff the slaughter was so brutal that even tho Chinese struck and the commissars (95 per cent, of whom are Jews) had to finish the job themselves.'

There is more in the same strain, but I will refrain from quoting further. -One would hesitate to claim that these condi ions hold all over Bolshevik Russia; at| the same time, as a 'Political creed' it would appear to have its drawbacks.

byge as is so headed appeared in "The Times." and is called to "The Dally Herald" by special permission it should be understood that the opinions given are not those of "The Times" unless expressly stated to be

### KM) RUSSIA.

#### COUNTRY A HELL UNDER THE BOLSHEVIKS.

To arrive in England from Russia is like passing from a dungeon to tlie light of day. In England you have food in your mouths, beds for your body, law and order all over i the land," and a hopeful . outlook of | victory and triumph for the future i (writes the Rev. George Frankham Shell in the London "Evening Stan- j dard.") I do not know a single man, unless lie bo a Bolshevik or a Ger man, who would not sacrifice all he has (iT the Germans and Bolslievilts have left him anything! order to get out of Russia. A German has certainly no desire to ((hit the coun trv. for bis interests are inviolable, a lid, in concert with his after-war economic comiuest. of Russia. As for J Russian patriots, and capitalists of ; all Allied nations, the Bolslioviks have reserved for them no place in the land, save ill their graves,-or In prison, or as penniless outcasts on the road.

, , Lenin and Trotsky have 110 toler ance for non-Bolsheviks. Everyone must declare his political adherence, ami he must at least express "sym pathy with the Bolshevik Govern ment." All others are actual or potential counter-revolutionaries, to he watched and suppressed. The slightest murmur of discontent with the Bolshevik Kingdom Come is set down as counter-revolutionary ac tivity, and the guilty one is either despatched to a better world or thrown into prison for a taste of how life can he worse.

life can he worse.

#### WOMEN WJ-JO DARED.

A short .» time ago T was passing down a. street in a humble quarter of Moscow, where I was attracted by much screaming and shouting, which came from a crowd standing outside n baker's shop. A young woman, with a market bag in her hand, was struggling with a couple, of Red Guards. As is usual in Russia when anything happens in the street, peo ple crowd round, shout and scream, and give their advice right and left. When someone is arrested a great and noisy argumentation takes place among the crowd, the arrester and the arrested. So it was in this tasc. The woman had been accused or counter-revolutionary activity. Her great crime was that she had been discontented with the chaff-bread the Bolshevik authorities were dealing out to the people. Above all, she had I dared to exclaim that under the Czar the people got bread, and not i 1 chaff. She had been immediately re ported by a zealous Bolshe\\ik, and the Red Guards had come to take lier to prison. She declared she could not digest the Bolshevik bread, and that what she said about the Czar s bread was perfectly true. She ar gued and resisted for somo time, till at last an ugly Lett Red Guard took up his rifle and knocked her down with the butt-end. In a few moments she expired. Her skull was shatter ed . and the brains came out. When i L passed down the street an hour later her body was still lying in the gutter. A small crowd stood gassing at it. The sight was usual, so tliev did not trouble. Just as 1 came up a cat cauie out of the bakers shop and ate some of the scattered brains. The crowd looked on uncon

brains. The crowd looked on uncon cerned.

#### GLORY IN THE GUTTER.

An old Russian general, once glorious in battle, now, thanks to the Bolsheviks, selling papers in the street, turned to 1110, and said, bee what we've lived to. Holy Russia s in the hftiuls o£ the Anti-Christ. Gci mans, Jews, and Letts all have Rus sia in their power, and govern the land." Then pointing to the body, lie added. "And that is the only way out for all Russians who dare to mur mur against the foreigner's yoke.'

So numerous are the executions that coffins cannot bo made in suffi cient numbers or time. I have seen cartloads of corpses from tlie prisons missing through the streets 111 the small hours of the moTning. Often a prisoner is executed after long de tention in prison in order to make room for a newcomer, as the pri sons are overcrowded.

I once went to the /Taganka prison in Moscow to see a friend .who had been kept in prison a long time with out nnv accusation save that of being a rich' man. Time after time ho re fused to pay the enormous bribe his Bolshevik guards demanded for his release. Indeed, he had 110 money, neither had his friends, for ill com mon with all other folk he was a poor as the Bolsheviks can leave a man. His factory was taken by the Bolshevik workmen and completely ruined, his war bonds annulled, his house and furniture confiscated, and Bolshevised. He had not a copeck left. Everything bad passed into the hands of Bolshevism. When I got to the pri son 1 found his wife was waiting to see him, She had brought him some food. "When we succeeded at last in getting his name attended to by a

I

getting his name to by a

Red Guard and the food had boen I liandod in, wo wore surprised to see the man come back with a bundle. ' "You won't be able to soo your hus band to-day," he said to tho lady" "I've brought you his clothes. Wo finished him off last night."

Not long ago I was at a Russian gentleman's country house. We wore a small party. There wore among us Prince Yagarino and Count Iiutais soff, whose father was for some time Governor at Siberia, and years ago Russian military attaclio in London.

#### SAVED. BY A PASSPORT!

We had just sat down to dinner when a body of soldiers and sailors of the Red Guard broke in upon us and ordered us to go out and get into dung-carts. Some of the ladies wore also ordered to got in, although they were in flimsy robes. Tho Bolshevik guards told us wo were to bo driven to the local Soviet, as we.worb sus pected of a plot against the Bolshe viks. They wore very brutal, and drove us recklessly. In the middle of u pine forest they made us get out of I the dung-carts and lino up against tho trees. The ladies were set aside. The Red Guards prepared to shoot the moii. I'pulled out my British pass port and threatened them with tho direct results if they touched me. My words had effect, and I was sont aside with the women, but I was powerless to aid the men. A few mo ments after they were shot. The la dies and myself wore driven back in to the dung-carts and taken home.

People in England cannot imagine into what depth of barbarism Russia is being dragged by Bolshevism. All

is being dragged by Bolshevism. All the cultured elements of the popula tion are being exterminated, and the rabble "is master of all. I bring a cry for help from Orthodox Russia, from the real Russia.

Just before I left Moscow, I was moved almost to tears by a little in cident. Knowing that I was leaving for England, an aged, white-haired Russian prince embraced me time af ter time, and, to my great surprise and amazement, foil at my feet and kissed them. In heart-broken tones he bogged pardon of the Allies for Bol shevik treachery, and implored me to tell people in England that real Russians were and still arc faithful to the cause of the Allies. All he de sires and hopes is that tho Allies will decide to send aid to their friends in Russia to rosette them from the ter rible yoke which prevents them from taking up arms and rallying Russia to fight tho common foe.

Armidale Quarter Sessions wore hold on Monday. No cases were lis ted for hearing, and Judge Cohen ro ceived the customary presentation of white kid gloves to mark tho dis trict's .freedom from crime. His Honor congratulated the district on this happy stao of affairs and hoped it would long remain so. There was likewise a very light District Court. The only case that came on for hear ing was a breach o£ promise suit. The Judge awarded plaintiff £20. This being tho occasion of his first .court. Judge Cohen receivd the congratula tions of tho court from the Crown Prosecutor, Mr. R. J. Browning, and Messrs C. Mackenzie and Colonel Ab bott, solicitors, Mr. G. Atkin, P.M..

bott, solicitors, Mr. G. Atkin, P.M.. and the Deputy Sheriff.

Tim Tambar Springs, village was a busy sceno on Friday last, when largo numbers of people of the local and surrounding districts attended at the unveiling of the handsome monument crected to. the memory of the soldiers who enlisted from Tam bar Springs and. servo in the great war (says Gunnodali "Advertiser"). The memorial is of Italian marble, standing on a blue granite base, sol idly erectod on a four-feet, reinfor ced concrete foundation. Tho sol dier figure, with downcast eyes, and resting easy, is 5ft Gin high. As the , order was placed in tho sculptor's hands during the earlier stages of the war the cost of the work was £245, but when completed it is estim ated to cost approximately £300. It stands in a commanding position on a small allotment in a central posi tion in tho village, which was pur chased by the Memorial Committee, of which Mr. Howard is president, and Mr. Tlios. Turner secretary. Ninety-one names aro engraved on the stone in tho order in which tho men enlisted, and the leter Iv in fol lowing a name denotes that the su preme sacrifice has boon paid.

A case of considerable Interest to landlords and tenants was docidod at the Glen Innes court last week (says the 'Guardian') George Mann sued 1Mwin Ashbuvn tor 10/6 being' a week's rent in lieu of notice and £2 8/9 tor repairs effected to a dweliiug of which defendant was the tenant. A verdict was given for tho amount claimed with costs.

Before the District Court at Armi dale, Bridget O'Sullivan of Armidale, sued William John Love of Tilbuster for breach of promise of marriage. His Honor entered a vordict

Muswellbrook Chronicle (NSW : 1898 - 1955), Saturday 8 February 1919, page 8 (7)

His Honor entered a vordict for plaintiff for £20.

# who they are and what they believe.

Experiences of the heavy brodies and experiences of the heavy brodies in a second of the business of the heavy brodies in the heavy brodies and the heavy brodies and the heavy brodies and the heavy brodies and the heavy brodies and the heavy brodies are the bolshey ki leaders?

What do they believe—just typet is

What do they believe—just hyhat is their theory of government? All All All All All All All All All Al

Just exactly how do they administer the government allow at relation beautiful of they administer the government allow at relation beautiful to I have just returned from Russia. It was being when the Bolsheviki came into power. I attempted to do business in Petrograd, Moscov, and Kiev for a year. First and last I have met and had dealings with most of their leaders, hundreds of their linderlings, and talked to every workman and soldier. I could. Keeping scrippulously to facts within my own observation and experience. It will

have been reliably informed by bankers in Sweden that Mrs. I ofsky has since Joined him with cash running well into the millions.

meantime interested him not a little very forested him not a little very forested him not a little very forested in the Bolsheyiki councils. During the Kerensky regime he discovered a new and fuctative business. We was in selection

ing fake, passports credentials, permits, etc. the threed upon this to the extent of, 7,000,000 publes. The constituted himself official bribet receiven for Russia. When caught at it Kerensky put him in jail and confiscated such of his stolen treasure as could be to his stolen treasure as could be to his septet, hoard, however, he supplied the Bolsheviki with 50,000 roubles for their campaign. The figure is exact, and authentic. The consequence was that when they came into power he was not only released but his booty was returned to him.

A Visit to Smolny.

while I was in Russia the Bolsheviki conducted all their administration from the old Smolny Academy. This was a fine old building, set back among gardens and flowering shrubs and manicured grounds upon the outskirts of Petro-

ed grounds upon the outskirts of Petrograd. It had been a private school for the children of royalty. It had been seized upon by the Bolsheviki at the fall of the Czar, and now within its learned walls contained every single atom of the working regime. If an Empire wished to make a treaty or a beggar wished to get a bread ticket, they both had to go to this identical building. If a man wanted protection or a woman wanted to put out her house afire, they had to do the same. I came because I wanted a passport from Zalkind, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Machine guns, cannon, and a tatter-demalion soldiery littered the approach. Inside I was allowed to pass by a genial little peasant damsel of seventeen, engrossed in a flirtation with some top boots. The sight I then saw was astonishing. Through corridors, I passed, looking into open doors—the executive offices of a kingdom of 180,000,000 souls—at least so it was claimed. I may as well be plain. It was disgusting, it was filthy. The men were sitting at desks, presumably conducting mighty matters

tured to hail him as a fellow New York-\\ner, hoping thus to expedite my business.
He was, delighted, and assuming command agreed to shove things through
for me.

"What Ministry do you belong to?"

He grinned. "To all the ministries I am a member, of the Military Revolu-

No Swonder the slecterity hopped about. This committee was the executive and sutocertics head of the Smolny Government, and successive reperior to all ministers and all cabinets. It was the inviolate and ultimate authority.

### A Negro Cabinet Minister.

his like in the world. It New York he had joined the H.W.W. and had been one of their end men and agitators. He was an associate of Max Eastman. 'Johnny' would whom made on excellent South Catolina Senator cinder. the carpet bagof their end in He confided to hie that he of the radius as it. but a mon rill so have that time the Bolsheviki had become too

that time the Boisneviki had pacying too
conservative to suit him, band he is Inow
the recogni ed head of the Anarchists of
Russia.

Shevike regime. The personnel of the Bol-

That was the gist of his proposition. I pointed out that this was syndicalism pure and simple, but that did not disturb him at all.

was not one single man of standing or recognised capacity. Russia, like every other country, has its honorable and able bankers, lawyers, jurists, philanthropists, socialists, students, and business men There is not a single man of character that I met during my stay that had anything in common with the Bolsheviki This includes most emphatically the Jews. For this regime, this outcast organization enlisted not a single one of the great numebrs of educated and talented Jews of the Emipre.

I emphasise this because the question, "Who are the Bolsheviki?" can only be answered by saying who are not Bolsheviki. An exact parallel would be obtained in he United States of Max Eastman were made President, Tannenbaum vice President, and the Flynn "Girl" taking the role of the Kollantay "woman"—a cabinet minister. Not one single member of the present administration, and not one single reputable and able leader of cither business or reform would be found in their administration.

Pershing would not command out army.

It would be commanded by an anarchist Corporal. Krylenko, a corporal (proposchick) was at the time Commander in Chief of the Red Guards.

The Able Beishevist Propaganda.

But there are very capable men bear-\\ning Bolshevik commissions. They are
to be build in the field conducting their
principale businesses—selling their tangible assets to Germany and conducting
foreign propaganda. These two transactions entice all the talent, because
they constitute all that makes the affair
a going concern. From one they get all
their money. On the other they spend it
all.

Some people think Tham making a startling statement when I say that the Bolshevik leaders are selling everything they can to the Germans. But they make no secret of it at all it is as open as daylight in Stockholm? Being a lucrative business, the agents there are

of a great deal higher ability than can be found in Smolny? DiWhen I was line . Stockholm the group consisted of the object when the stable was like the deal with the stable was like the deal of the stable was like the deal of the stable was like the deal of the stable was like the deal of the stable was like the stable to the stable the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to the stable to th

to the same place for the same purpose; but thad been killed there in rathered of

Talkind, with a capital limited by nothing but the supply of paper. (I was told by the director of the mint that 8,000,000 roubles of paper money; were printed in the first two months of the Bolsheviki rule) went forth to Sweden, and was headed for France and England on the same errand, nour stiry, orall

The United States is not impune, ill came Haver on the state steamer with Tunarasev, of the Bolshevik staff. This man is a Russian and maker body fooly the used to be a minister and ervite Grans and a minister condervite Grans and a minister giving preferentials to Grans any of the Grans working this revolution ary propaganda for the Bolsheviking the revolution is a leading Bolshevik.

And I said, the was son this way to the United States nowhen dispet him has in April. He and Jonas Lied, backed oby Trotzky and hening, got, up what they called the Siberian Steamship Company This was camouflage to gain an entree here for their propagandars Tosoinsure his recention. Tunarasey came as Normers

his reception. Tunarasev came as Norme, and Consul. On board Inasked thim up in and down if the had a personal interest in the Bolsheviki. He had been pamed are the well at the Bolsheviki. I have named are the leaders of the Bolsheviki.

### The Eolshevist Doctrines.

shevish doctrine of ingovernment wandle economics with the general liberal movement mandle movement and tendency, manifest almost any where in the world-nowadays, do so because they lack three worlfour definitions and distinctsons what are elementary to any student of Socialism of social reform, or any responsible number of the labor party. There are three conceptions that have no more in common with each otherwithm they shave with the fold shells back High Tariff Capitalism (so called).

Evolutionary Socialism.

Revolutionary Socialism and

Syndicalism.

When one says Socialism to-day, what the main violently radical by the electhinkers, and also what is considered in the main violently radical by the elec-

it about overnight by an actual physical

They took over the banks, munition works, the railroads, and some municipal plants for the Government. At any rate, the commissaries put in charge were supposed to represent the Government. This was done at the point of the Bayonet. In these factions they might fairly be said to be making and

Social smile But even the most radicale Revolutionary Social smile But even the most radicale Revolutionary Socialist would heatedly deny that they had given the propositional a fair chanceling For they neglected the one final requirement that the positions be sorupulously being went to the lablest men. They were given without a single exception to the most cunskilled office boys; peasants, doldiers that the large orailed road system is now heated by or conductor tor.

Buttoin in imerable other in stances the stores, factories, and farms were handed directly over to the laborers or the neighboring peasants by direct order from Smolny. This also, of course, was accomplished by volence of threat of violence. That is Syndicalism. This is exactly the doctrines of the I.W.W. That is, it what they have preached, and afe are now inclined to deny. It is the I.W.W., or worse.

They have abolished all police, "All" courts, all firemen, all street cleaning?"

This is part of the doctrine of aharanchy. It may be a by-product of Syndian calisms the half ha partial the product of syndians.

Affordishess, public and private, as well as regular governmental activities, are conducted by individuals with ho previous training or experience And the universal experience—that it needs no elaboration, that he was can only be consummated by personally bribing the official in charge.

This is not the part of any philosophy at all. It is reducing the discussion to an absurdity, and heaping ridicule upon the monumental life labors of Karl Marx to mention them in the same category. There is no name to give their practices. Hence, when discussing them, no sincere advoate of the liberal movement, no leader of labor, no champion of Socialism would tolerate his creed being used in that connection. So let us trail an entirely new kind of society, and government and economy, easily grasped by anybody, however ignorant, that walks on two legs. And we will simply call it "Bolshevism."

And though Bolshevism is bad enough

And though Bolshevism is bad enough of itself, it is a crowning absurdity to attempt to apply it in a country like Russia, in which the industrial population

Most people had their doubts when circumstantial news came of the doing to death of they Russian. Imperial family. Now, it appears that they are all well.

Leader (Brisbane, Qld.: 1918 - 1919), Friday 10 January 1919, page 6 (22)

Wonder if the exactarina, will be brought to to trial of enough the contribution of enough the survey services to

### THE RUSSIAN HORROR.

#### BOLSHEVIK MISRULE

To arrive in England from Russia is like passing from a dungeon to the light of day. In England you have food for your mouths, beds for your body, law and order all over the land, and a hopeful outlook of victory and triumph for the future (writes the Rev. George Frankham Shell in the London "Evening Standard"). I do not know a single man, unless he be a Bolshevik or a German, who would not sacrifice all he has (if the Germans and Bolsheviks have left him anything) in order to get out of Russia. A German has certainly no desire to quit the country, for his interests are inviolable, and, in concert with his Bolshevik agents, he is preparing his afterwar economic conquest of Russia. As for Russian patriots, and capitalists of all Allied nations, the Bolsheviks have reserved for them no place in the land, save in their grave, or in prison, or as penniless outcasts on the road.

Lenin and Trotsky have no tolerance for non-Bolsheviks. Everyone must declare his political adherence, and he must at least express "sympathy with the Bolshevist Government." All others are actual or potential counter-revolutionaries, to be watched and suppressed. The slightest murmur of discontent with the Bolshevik Kingdom Come is set down as counter-revolutionary activity, and the guilty one is either despatched to a better world or thrown into prison for a taste of how life can be worse.

A short time ago I was passing down a street in a humble quarter of Moscow, when I was attracted by much screaming and shouting, which came from a crowd standing outside a baker's shop. A poor woman with a market bag in her hand was struggling with a couple of Red Guards. As is usual in Russia when anything happens in the street, people crowd round, shout and scream, and give their advice right and left. When someone is arrested a great and noisy argumentation takes place among the crowd, the arrester, and the arrested. So it was in this case. The woman had been accused of counter-revolutionary activity.

accused of counter-revolutionary activity. Her great crime was that she had been discontented with the chaff-bread the Bolshevik authorities were dealing out to the people. Above all, she had dared to exclaim that under the Czar the people got bread and not chaif. She had been immediately reported by a zealous Bolshevik, and the Red Guards had come to take her to prison. She declared she could not digest the Bolshevik bread, and that what she had said about the Czar's bread was perfectly true. She argued and resisted for some time, till at last an ugly Lett Red Guard took up his rifle and knocked her down with the butt-end. In a few moments she expired. Her skull was shattered, and the brains came out. When I passed down the street an bour later her body was still lying in the gutter. A small crowd stood gazing at it. The eight was usual, so they did not trouble. Just as I came up, a cat came out of the baker's shop, and ate some of the scattered brains. The crowd looked on unconcerned.

An old Russian general, once glorious in battle, now, thanks to the Bolsheviks, selling papers in the street, turned to me, and said: "See what we've lived to. Holy Russia's in the hands of Anti-Christ. Germans, Jews, and Letts all have Russia in their power, and govern the land." Then, pointing to the body, he added, "And that is the only way out for all Russians who dare to murmur against the foreigner's yoke."

So numerous are the executions that coffins cannot be made in sufficient numbers or time. I have seen cartloads of corpses from the prisons passing through the streets in the small hours of the morning. Often a prisoner is executed after long detention in prison, in order to make room for a newcomer, as the prisons are overcrowded.

I once went to the Taganka prison in Moscow, to see a friend who had been kept in prison a long time without any accusation save that of being a rich man. Time after time he refused to pay the enormous bribe his Boleshvik guards demanded for his release. Indeed, he had no money, nelther had his friends, for, in common with all other folk, he was as poor as the Bolsheviks can leave a man. His factory was taken by the Bolshevik workmen, and completely ruined, his war bonds annulled, his house and furniture confiscated and Bolshevised. He had not a constitute to the second leave.

his house and furniture confiscated and Bolshevised. He had not a copeck left. Everything had passed into the hands of Bolshevism. When I got to the prison I found his wife was waiting to see him. She had brought him some food. When we succeeded at last in getting his name attended to by a Red Guard, and the food had been handed in, we were surprised to see the man come back with a bundle. "You won't, be able to see your husband to-day," he said to the lady. "I've brought you his clothes. We finished him off last night!"

Not long ago I was at a Russian gentleman's country house. We were a small party. There were among us Prince Yagarine and Count Kutaissoff, whose father was for some time Governor of Siberla, and years ago Russian military attache in London.

We had just sat down to dinner when a body of soldiers and sailors of the Red Guard broke in upon us and ordered us to go out and get into dung-carts. Some of the ladies were also ordered to get in, although they were in flims? robes. The Bolshevik guards told us we were to be driven to the local Soviet, as we were suspected of a plot against the Bolsheviks. They were very brutal, and drove us recklessly. In the middle of a pine forest they made us get out of the dung-carts and line up against the trees. The ladies were set aside. The Red Guards prepared to shoot the mea. I pulled out my British passport, and threatened them with the direst results if they touched me. My words had effect, and I was set aside with the women, but I was powerless to aid the men. A few moments after they were shot. The ladies and myself were driven back into the dung-carts and taken home.

People in England cannot imagine into what depths of barbarism Russia is being dragged by Bolshevism. All the cultured elements of the population are being exterminated, and the rabble is master of all. I bring a cry for help from patriotic Russia, from Orthodox Russia, from the real Russia.

Just before I left Moscow I was moved almost to tears by a little incident Knowing that I was leaving for England an aged, white-haired Russian prince embraced me time after time, and, to my great surprise and amazement, fell at my feet and kissed them. In heart-broken tones he begged pardon of the Allies for

tones 'he begged pardon of the Allies for B3olshdvikl treachery, and implored me to tell the people in IEngland that real Rus sians. were and still are \\faithful to the cause of the Allie.. All he desires and hopes is that the Allies will decide to send aid to their friends in Russia to resoue them from ithe terrible, yokae which prevents them from taling up arms and rallying Russia to fight the common f.oe.

### RUSSIA'S AGONY.

An iliuminating and very readable ac count of tlie origins, course, and significance of the Russian Revolution is contained in '"Russia's Agony." by Robert Wilton {1 .on don: Arnold). Its author has long been the l'etvograd correspondent of "The Times." His record is based, not only 0>n personal observations during tbe great up heaval. but also 011 a long previous study of the country, its politics, its economic development, and its social conditions. "The temptation to relate all that I knew in book form has." he tells us. "often been very strong, because few people realised more clearly how little was known about the Russians outside, and how much harm this ignorance caused to our relations with them. But the whole truth could not be told during the old regime, and 1 preferred not to produce a halting narrative—a lialf trutli. The obstacles to a frank statement of Russia as she was and as she is having been removed, 1 have lost no time in pre senting l:er case to my fellow-countrymen and Allie? according to the best of my knowledge and understanding—without fear or favour." The resulting book is something very different from the collected -reprints of reports and despatches which form the substance of so many "books" recently put forth, with more haste than judgment, by newspaper correspondents, it is a considered effort not only to' tell the sad story of Russia's past >year of agony, but to explain in the light of Russia's his tory what has been happening.

their

Mr. Wilton traces back to their begin nings tlie various forces which worked to produce the sudden overthrow of the autocracy, and then brought about the sinister—but, as lie believes, transient ascendancy of extremists, who, after plung ing the country into a state of anarchy, delivered it over for (lie time being to the. malign domination of a truculent external foe. He describes, on the one hand, the sins of tbe bureaucracy and, above all, of the "okhrana," or political police, and, on the other, the growth of the lawuess revo lutionary parties. He examines the effect of German influences, the part played in tne revolutionary movement by denational ised Jews, and the far-reaching evil wrought by "Rasputinism," under the protection of the ex-Csaritza, Alexandra Feodorovna. His analysis ot the polities of the revolu tionaries—split up into warring, factions, mast of whom did little but talk, while the Bolsheviks acted—is particularly in teresting. It enables one to understand how a minority of visionaries and traitors has succeeded in wresting control of the Government from tlie moderate reformers, who far more truly expressed the true spirit of "free Russia." In what the Rus sian Revolution lias revealed of the true character of Socialism when it gains the , upper hand in a community, there is, as Mr. Wilton indicates, a lesson of momen tons significance for every thinking man and woman in the Allied nations—for workers as well as employers. " "Social ism," as he remarks, "has ever promised an easy path, hut wc have seen wlrither it has led Russia. No organisation" of the

masses—not even the election of -a popular constituent assembly—could there have ; saved Socialism from the dominance of ex tremists and consequent anarchy.''

In these pages we can read plainly the

tale of; tlw-. ht>gMlifg «f the ignorant many by the ^Ites and prompt action of a cun ning few, who from the first—even before the revolution actually broke out—bad laid the plans which they have deliberately and persistently carried out for the- destruction of the social fabric, ill'. Wilton gives facts in abundance to bear out tlie. following general conclusion:—''The nation and the army realised quite well' when the war broke out that the quarrel had been fastened upon them by Germany, and they were unanimous in desiring to shake off Teutonic domination and aggressiveness. But they grew tired—with good reason—K>f seeing the conduct of the war hopelessly muddled, and the great problems of food and transport mismanaged, and of'finding their efforts to mend matters persistently ignored. The revolutionaries took the op portunity to organise an uprising in Petro grad, and the autocracy, having outlived its day, found no supporters in the hour of need. It fell like a rotten pear. Throughout the tumult of upheaval the re volutionaries were marshalled by an old and experienced hand (i.e., Lenin)—an ex tremist who had formed a temporary alli ance with the German propaganda, and who came to Russia under German auspices, provided with German money. The whole course of tlie revolut ion was directed by

this man and his allies. They were in finitely superior in skill and daring to the Socialist doctrinaires or visionaries who claimed to represent the masses of the people. Behind the backs of sham coa lition Governments they carried out un hesitatingly and unfalteringly their pro gramme of disruption of Russia's armed forces, and of her material and financial re sources, with a view to rendering it im possible for her to continue the struggle."

The successive stages of this conspiracy were marked by (1) the issue of the first Soviet "prikaz" or "order,'' coueoeted by a Bolshevik "pseudo-Jew" named Nakam kez, bidding the soldiers disobey their officers, seize arms, and take charge of mili tary administration; (2) the proposal to hold an international socialist conference at Stockholm: (3) the promulgation of .the "no annexation and no indemnity" doctrine; (4) the opening of the Galiciau front; and (5) the wholesale plundering of the Trea sury. "Bolshevism," declares Mr. Wilton, "was most dangerous while it worked be hind the screen of 'democracy.' When it came into the light, of day with Lenin's usurpation of the Government in Petrograd its troubles began. It had to conclude an immediate peace, and feed and enrich the moh—or perish. Obviously Bolshevism is a destructive, not a constructive, agency. It lias laid waste the country, agriculturally and. industrially. It offers no practicable method of feeding and clothing the people. Even, if the German terms be accepted via., exploitation oi the Russian grain mar ket and duty free entry of German goodsthe Russian cities will starve, and the Russian peasant will go in rags. Moreover, all who could leave the cities have fled home to their villages, and it is unlikely that any surplus food will be available for export from European Russia for a long time to come. Thus from an economic point of view the continuance of the present regime is an impossibility."

voted himself to the study of Marx, and characteristically he espoused the quasi-Bolshevism of the early Marxian revelation, while steadfastly repudiating the more

moderate tendencies of his master's later teaching. He became a revolutionary outlaw, and in the "nineties" tasted the "sweets" of Siberia. Then he went abroad, and in 1903, at Stockholm, proclaimed the Bolshevik doctrine. In 1905 he returned to Petrograd, and became the guiding spirit of the first Soviet. Kerensky was then only beginning to "conspire."

apart from his countrymen, we constrained tt> rely 'on the aid of almost exclusively non-Russian elements. The majority of his principal associates" were of the pseudo-Jew class—the hate-laden pro duct of -the. Pole. - Without them, and with out the help of German agents like Robert Grimm, and German gold conveyed' through well-known banks in Petrograd, he could never have assured the ephemeral triumph of Bolshevism." Kerenskv, on the other hand, Mr.. Wilton describes as a higlily stnmg, hysterical young man pTio tried to lead the army and play the autocrat. "But the greatness that was thrust upon him reached far above his mental and moral calibre. He. was not of gentle birth or up bringing. nor a statesman by genius or ex perience. Well-intentioned, he" found him self torn by a thousand conflicting cares and iulerests."

Ruthless as is Mr. Wilton's exposure of . the errors of Bolshevism, it is hardly more ruthless than his detailed exposure of the sins of the autocratic regime. That the revolution, with its chaos and its. excesses, became inevitable was due mainly, accord ing to his vivid narrative, to the dark forees which operated upon Czar and Government through the agency of the superstitious, self-willed, Gerinanophile Czaritza. Grave as the condition of Russia is, Mr. Wilton is far from despairing of her future. '"Her people." lie says, "have had to suffer more than any other of the belligerent nations. The revolution lias been worse than an invasion of the Tartars. Indeed, one may regard this latest ordeal as being another service rendered by the Russian people to

humanity. We may learn from their bitter experience more about the deadliest foe of our civilisation, and more readily detect its secret workings. We may hope also that the modern Huns who have launched this visitation will have cause to regret their foul work as tliey have already deplored tihe application of poison gases. The Russians survived Tatardom; they are a great multi tude, and have not all succumbed to the German Bolshevist poison. The revolution has stirred up the dregs and muddled the current of national life. But its effects have not been altogether unsalutary, nor have its lessons been lost upon" the best elements of tbc nation. . . . Russia has been resolving itself into its constituent parts during the revolution. This tendency is conservative rather than centrifugal. It is intrinsically a revolt against anarchy. Tt should not excite alarm, but rather be hailed as a first step towards final crystal lisation of the new State. And whether that State will be a monarchy or a repub lic, a federation or a single organism, ps not pertinent-tor' the main isaue 'tbit con cerns Russia's, friends. The deadening and dissrstrous fregemon^of etroa^i is-yqomijig to an end. ' A huge cbm"ta9n(weattu like Russia cannot be governed from'one essen tially un-Russiap, centre. .. . . A new Russia'is springing u'p'ahiid the ruins of the old,.- The. dw<4f:.Jtenrin?d;J4n>ctidn draws to a close. Do not believe outward aspects and appearances. Russia is not dead. Heragtmy, still upon lier, is not the agony, of death, but the agony; of a jiving, breathing organism struggling to' find ex

Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946), Saturday 4 May 1918, page 38 (9)

pression, wrestling against the fiend hf Bol shevism that has gripped her when she mas at her weakest." '

## LIFE UNDER BOLSHEVISM.

## An Ex-Queenslander's Experi. ence.

The Minister for Defence, Senator Pearce, has made available the fol lowing extract from a letter written by Michael Adorosly,. a former resident, from Chits beria), on 23rd September, and lately received by M r J ames H. Fitzpatrick, of J. H. Rouvray and Company, Miles, Queensland : — 'At last the Socialists of the extreme type have been driven into the ranges of Si beria, and I am in a position to write abroad. We have been cut off from the world for about six months, and before that the postal officials were too busy discussing their class posi tions and ensuring . to themselves the right to do nothing and get big wages, so they could not undertake to de liver any letters, with any sort of a guarantee. There was no chance to get away from Russia, because pass ports were strictly examined, and anyone suspected of belonging to the class not strictly proletarian was de barred from leaving, and had to live or die as best he could, that -if he was

worker is not likely to recover. Poor, ignorant, savage Russian Moujik, he j cannot go along by himself, he has to be led. The Tzar nearly led him into the hands of the Kaiser 3 it was the Liberals that saved the Russian army from being handed over to the Ger mans, and then the Socialists, as tools of the Prusssans, destroyed Russia altogether. Such a lot of people were lost in the internal strife, and such' a lot of wealth perished that had the Russian army pitched into Germany after the downfall of the Tsar, the Kaiser would have been crushed with a 'fraction of the losses— such is the fate of good intentions. Well, Russia is very nearly vanished ; had the Liberals not thrown down the Tsar (the worker did very little towards it), the Tsarina would have placed the Russian army at tho disposal of the Germans. The silly stolid Mou jik would have been driven against the French and English, and then, I after crushing France, would have been ruled and whipped by Prussian Governors. After all, it might turn good for the Avorld that fate disorganised an army of half savage dolts, who could be used for upholding Prussian power. Now the Germans

of common rights, an outlaw for possessing more head ot cattle than his neighbour, still he lives under the threat of being de priued of his property by the lovers of equality.'

## RUSSIA UNDER BOLSHEVIKI RULE.

'Capitalists in Russia are trying to dis- : credit the; revolution by arousing anarchy through hired spies and criminals. All discontent and confusion are due to their, machinations; and not to the efforts: of trie Socialists who have' come from America.' If anything, these -men and women are helping ^with the. revolution, and helping, to establish the Russian democracy.' ,

-This is the opinion of a ,Hussian:.:who' has come here on a diplomatic mission and will return shortly. . For this' reason his -name cannot be divulged. He' went to 'Russia three months ago, firmly con vinced ,that the : Social, Revolutionary party, with their leaderV Kereriski, were the only hope for Russia, but he has re turned a Bolshevik, or Bolshevic, as Charles Edward Russell has it, sympa thiser. ?

### FOOD CHEAPEh THAN IN U.S.

. 'Affairs over in Russia,'- the informant | continued; 'are no worse than here; in many ways better. Food is cheaper than, it is here, from , what I gathered in Vladivostok. Meat is sold at 10 cents a pound, ' with bread and potatoes .following close 'upon its heels. The very best kind of a dinner costs 25 cents.' : ,-'iV':..i

From the material side of -Russia, the new arrival -turned his account into lighter veined channels.

'I asked about Elihu Root and Charlie Russell fi'om various people I met,'- he said, J'and they smiled. They said that no good Socialist would accompany Elihu Root on any mission. They told me that when Root was speaking to them he was greeted rather impolitely, sometimes in delicately, with missiles punctuating his oration. At other times, I was told, he had no one to speak to by the time he had ? completed. If any ill feeling was\\ harbored against America, it was not caused by 'agitators'' who had come from America to Russia, but to a great, extent by the Root commission itself, according to the reports of people whom. I met.'

#### EDUCATION AND RELIGION.

'Education and religion are. not -dead— . perhaps more alive than ever,!' the 'Call' informant continued. ' -

-'Churches are open to, any . one- who wishes to occupy the pulpit and~preacli Socialism. Jew and Gentile alike are welcome , to it, and it is not -infrequent to see a 'Jew-preaching in what was- once & Greek Catholic' church.

'Schools have sprung : up everywhere. Old men and women who had never gone to school before are beginning the A, B, C of Russian. English is taught in every7 school, and Russian children speak Eng lish intelligently and with ease. . V';.,

'Nor is Russia a lightless,. joyless Russia. Masquerade balls and theatres are open to the public,' he went on. 'There is a ball every night, and all pitch in to enjoy their new-found freedom. It is a strange fact, but none, the less truev

'In ^Vladivostok; ^ despite the fact 'tliat

"In Vladivostok, despite the fact that there are 100,000 acknowledged criminals who have served terms in prison, there is less crime than ever before. Austrian and German prisoners have been freed and mingle with the Russians. The Russian, simple, naive and trusting, embraces all. They are all brothers, is his belief. They speak more of the German revolution than they do of the Austrian, but it is a fact that both are on.

#### WOMEN PROMINENT.

"Women have played just as important part in the Russian revolution as the men," the "Call" informant continued, "and are now working side by side with them. From doing dock work down to the less arduous work of running elevators, cars and as overseers in telegraph offices, women are occupied. They are as ready to take the pulpit and the platform as the men are and make even more eloquent speakers. In many towns women have been elected mayors."

As for voting, women did not have to besiege the Government by lobbying and petitioning for the franchise; they were given it automatically, he said.

Men and women over 18 can vote on all occasions. If the man or woman is mentally or, rather, intellectually fit to vote and has not arrived at the age of 18, he or she can vote, too.

Concerning the army, the informant could not suppress his smile while talking.

"The soldier wears his uniform while he is on duty, but after that he is not compelled to. In fact, very few do wear their uniforms. No soldier salutes his

officer. All are desirous for a general .peace, and^: all are working for a settled down Russia.'

In ? concluding, the: 'Call'? informant said that trained men . are needed.' There is no' shortage of -common : labor, .- and wages reach- as high as 8 dols. a' day.

All: look to; Trotsky and the Bolsheviki as their only, r; salvation, for Trotsky is easily the most .popular man in Russia to-day.— New York 'Call.' -

#### BOLSHEVISM HAS BROKEN OUT IN HEAVEN.

#### God Abdicates.

(Taken from a recent issue of the "Daily Liar.")

The following extract from the "Worker" (Brisbane), 30th January, 1919, speaks for itself. As also do the

attached letters.

Tired of committing atrocities upon Englishmen and practising cannibalism upon children; having glutted
their appetites for villainy by committing infanticide, matricide, abortion, rape and incest, Lenine and
Trotsky have adjourned to Heaven,
where for some considerable time
they have carried on secret propaganda,

President Wilson and Lloyd George both announce that they will protect American and British sub-

jects in Paradise.

The Red Guards all got quickly drunk on Nectar, the wine of the Gods, and the scenes of drunken de-

Lauchery were shocking.

They singed St. Peter's whiskers, invaded the Virgin Mary's bedchamber, and dined on lamb chops cut from the Lamb of God (killed by order of Trotsky, as the lamb had insulted him by bleating at him).

The Bolsheviks are wearing in their caps feathers pulled from the wings of living angels, and dyed red in the

blood of the lamb of God.

Cigarettes were smoked by the revolutionaries—cigarettes made of incense wrapped in paper torn from

the Book of Judgment.

The jewels and gold ornaments have been stolen from the heavenly throne. Saint Peter, being a Jew, was offered a pawn-broker's license if he would consent to receive the stolen goods.

and is now being tried before the So-

and is now being tried before the Soviet for being a despot. The Devil, who was one time expelled from Heaven, for leading a revolution, offered to give evidence against the Almighty. But the Bolshevik chairman declined to accept his Satanic Majesty's testimony, on the grounds that it might be biased, but an official cable states that the Bolsheviks feared that the Devil might incriminate himself. Forged documents alleging to prove that a secret alliance existed between the Almighty and the Devil to divide between them all the souls on Judgment Day, were read at the trial, which was adjourned to permit the Soviet to witness a flying match between angels for the purpose of collecting funds to carry on revolutionary propaganda in Purgatory. All the favorites were heavily backed at ten to one by Trotsky and Lenine. A later message states both Lenine and Trotsky lost heavily on the day; as a consequence all flying matches are prohibited.

It is rumored that Jesus Christ and Mahomet have combined forces to stir up a counter revolution.

Townsville, 5th February, 1919. To the Postmaster-General, Melhourne, Victoria: Dear Sir.—We the undersigned desire to draw your attention to the article entitled "Holshevism has broken out in Heaven; God Abdicates," appearing on Page 3 of the issue of the "Worker" published in Brisbane, dated 30th January, 1919. We consider that it contains language and suggests ideas which grievously affront the feeling of all believers in the Christian Faith, that it insults two of the Blessed Persons of the Holy Trinity and carries the offence of blasphemy to an extreme seldom equalled. We beg you to take such action against the editor of the paper as you may think fit for having made use of your Department of the State for the distribution of matter so offensive to the Christian conscience

fensive to the Christian conscience and so injurious to the interests of society.—We are, dear sir, Yours very faithfully, John, North Queensland; T. F. Bourke, O.J.; James Norman, Sub-dean St. James Cathedral; John Sinclair, Presbyterian; Albert Taylor; F. A. Malcolm; S. McClinont, Commandant; A. L. Vines, Adjutant Salvation Army.

Commonwealth of Australia. Postmaster General, Melbourne, 17th February. 1910. Dear Sir.—I am in receipt of your letter of the 10th inst,
with communication signed by the
clergy of Townsville enclosed, regarding the article attached thereto,\\nentitled "Bolshevism has broken out\\nin Heaven—God Abdicates," which
you state appeared on page five of
the issue of "The Worker" published\\nin Brisbane on the 30th ultimo. In
reply, I may say that action has already been taken by this Department\\nin connection with the publication of
that article in another journal, and on
the result of such action will depend
any steps taken in the case which
you now bring under notice.—Yours
taithfully, William Webster.

## HORRORS OF KIEFE

TERRIBLE RECITAL OF RED. BARBARITIES.

BY MR. T. M. HEALY'S NIECES.

(From the Press Association's Special Correspondent.)

The figure of 4,000 is evidently much below the total of the corpses which are constantly being found in various parts of the city, mostly in cellars, where they are often revealed by the stench. The sisters Eva, Mayond Elleen Healy, daughters of Mr. Thomas licaly, and nieces of Mr. Tim Healy, were among the 40 or a limitsh residents of Kleff during the last six mosths of Bolshevism. The pave ma the following statement:—We three ellberty loving frish pirts, working for our living frish pirts.

for the old regime in Russia, because we knew its weaknesses, faults, and crimes, and were rejoiced when it was overthrown, and freedom seemed to have won. But this freedom was short lived and the autocracy of the Romanoffs, with all its evils, was paradise compared to the Bolshevist Hades which now, thank God, is nearing its end. When the Bolshevi's proclaimed that the British worke shad threatened to strike if Great Britain interfered in Russian affairs, we have if this were true there could not be any true conception in Great Britain of the unspeakable horrors of Polshevism, together with all its slaughter houses, in which thousands of the best Russian workmen and peasants have perished, along with the cream of all other classes of society. How we longed for representatives of our own people to come to Russia to see for themselves what had been done in the name of liberty and equality

"Our first experience of Bolshevik Tiberty," continued the Missess Healy, "was at Kieff in 1918 when over 3.000 officers were shot only for the crime of defending their country against the Germans. We saw long rows of corpses, clad in under linen, in the square before the palace, inside of which drunken Jews were playing a cakewalk on the piano, and drunken

cakewalk on the piano, and drunken comrades were dancing and capering about the place. There were more rows of corpses in the public gardens of all ages, from mere boys to old men of 70. The last six months, when the majority of the members of the Kieff Chresvychaika were always under the influence of drink and drugs transcended all conceivable awfulness At every Chresvychaika huge heaps of empty spirit and wine bottles and scores of morphine and cocain bottles were found. Members of the chief Chresvychaika sat before a cafe with wooden bars reaching to the ceiling, Prisoners were marched through the cafe, to be reviled and sentenced to death. Afterwards they were strioped naked, and carted off to the slaughter-house. The proceedings of another Chresvychaika were conducted in the open air in a beautiful garden. The judges were sprawling over the table, and pronounced death sentences wholesale, Crinking champagne in the otervals.

"Among the exhumed bodies was a soung woman, with a child, two or three years old, closely tied to her.

Both had been shot through the head. Sister of Mercy Matinord, who was accused of sheltering officers, was volated, and her breasts were cut off before she was killed. A lady of over 60 years of age was imprisoned by one Chesvychaika. She was taken out on several successive nights and placed against a wall, and shots were fired all round her head. This was done to extract information as to the whereabouts of an officer son, which she did not know. She also was finally murdered. Similar barbarities, including the crucifixion of a priest, could be enumerated."

The Misses Healy hope to start for

## RUTHLESS WARFARE.

"KILL THE JEWS AND SAVE RUSSIA."

GREAT POGROM BY MURDER-OUS GANGS.

ARMED WITH RIFLES, MACH-INE GUNS AND KNIVES.

## UNEXAMPLED MASSACRES BY SHOOTING AND BURNING.

Terrible stories are reaching Warsaw of the state of anarchy beyond the Polish lines in Volhynia, writes the Warsaw correspondent of the London "Times."

Atrocities are taking place there which equal the worst of the reign of terror in Moscow and Petrograd. After careful analysis of a number of different narratives, I have arrived at the following conclusion about the state of affairs which exists in Volhynia and Podolia, the country between the Nneiper and the Dneister.

Ruthless warfare is being carried on between two sorts of Bolshevists. The large towns, such as Kieff, are in the hands of the Commissaries of the Soviet Government of Moscow. Most of them are Jews. Their Bolshevism takes the form of requisitioning everything and everybody in the name of the community. For example, one Sunday, St. Alexander's Church at Kieff was raided during Mass by an armed force led by two Commissaries. The service was stopped, and after men and women had been separated, the whole congregation were made to strip to see if they had anything of value on them that was worth requisitioning. At the same time a large number of suitable persons were picked out for forced labor on public works.

Such methods as these applied in

the villages for the requisition of foodstuffs have brought about a sort of counter-revolution among the peasants to resist the exactions of the Communist Commissaries. The peasants have formed themselves into bands to protect themselves. The leaders of these bands are a number of rufficians, most of whom were formerly members of Trotsky's propagandist army. They are men of the type of "Peter the Painter," of Sydney-street fame, cutthroats from the dregs of the population. They call themselves Internationalists, but they own no allegiance to the Moscow Government, and each works for himself.

They have taken advantage of the Ukrainian peasants' hatred for the Jews, and Jewish Commissaries in particular, to make war on them with the help of the armed bands they have raised, since the Jews are the only people left in the country who possess anything. Property-owning classes, bourgeoisie, and intelligensia have all disappeared; they have either been murdered, or have field the country, or are hiding disguised in the towns. Alone the Jews, who either as Commissaries of the people or as profiteers have filled their pockets since the revolution, are left to be robbed. Hence Sokolovski, Makhno, Zaleny, and the other cutthroat adventures who lead these bands are conducting one enormous pogrom throughout the Ukraine.

scription "Kill the Jews and save Russia." The bands usually have their headquarters in one of the small towns where they constitute the army of the local republic; of which the particular brigand who leads them is the president. They range from gangs of 200 or so, armed with pikes made of butchers' knives, lashed to the ends of poles, up to large forces of several thousands well equipped with rifles

### BOLSHEVIKS THE SCUM OF RUSSIA.

A prominent Englishman who arrived in England in August from Moscow and Petrograd, thus describes the Russian situation:—

"The latest outrages will open the eyes of the world to the real meaning of Bolshevism, and will prove also to Socialists that Bolshevism is based on class hatred, plunder, licence, and en-

archy of an extreme type.

"Until lately the attitude of the Allies towards the Bolsheviks has caused considerable uncertainty among the intelligent classes in Russia. Some became for a time pro-German. They will all welcome the fact that the Allies are no longer under any illusions as regards the Bolsheviks. The Bolshevik leaders are not really Russians, but mainly renegade Jews. The leading Hebrews in Russia are as antagonistic to the Bolsheviks as anyone. Some of the principal men among the Bolsheviks cannot write or speak Russian. I can best describe the Bolsheviks as being the scum of the country, including criminals and

## **DEMORALISED RUSSIA.**

## Bolshevist Victims Tortured.

## Well-to-Do in Fear of Lives.

LONDON, 16th March.

The latest official news from Russia reveals a state of extraordinary demoralisation, while appalling outrages are general. The British consul at Ekaterinburg, as a result of special inquiries in the Perm district, reports that the number of victims amounts to several thousand. The victims are mostly shot, but before death they are usually tortured. A girl, aged 19, who was accused of espionage, was slowly pierced by a bayonet thirteen times in the same wound. She is still alive. In other cases the victims were wounded with the bayonet up to twenty times. Forty-six priests out of three hundred in the Perm district were killed. Sixty-six children, who were taken as hostages, were mown down with machine guns. In some cases the Bolshevists took ransom from the relatives after the victims had been secretly killed.

M. Duchesse, formerly French consul at Petrograd, who has revisited Russia, reports that the military and civil power of the Bolshevists is declining, owing to supplies for feeding their followers becoming exhausted, and the paper money being valueless. The frequent desertions of peasant troops are demorahing the army. There is constant dissension between the soviets at Petrograd and Moscow and those in the provinces. The peasants refuse to bring their stocks into the towns, and are hiding their food.

Official reports from Vladivostock state

that most of the commanding others of the Red Army are Germans, who are introducing German methods. The Red Commissaries are mostly Jews. In order to prevent desertion the officers are constantly watched, and their families are held as hostages. The well-to-do are hving in constant fear of death. The Red Commissaries are mostly young and badly educated. They condemn people to death without making any accusation. Frequently they assist in the murder of their victims. Starvation is giving rise to an epidemic which is exterminating entire villages. The educational system is entirely disorganised by the Bolshevists appointing teachers chosen by the students.

## Attempt on Lenin's Life.

Another attempt has been made on the life of M. Lenin. Shots were fired at him from a house in Moscow. His chauffeur was hit, but Lenin escaped injury.

## Fighting with Bolshevists.

Lettish troops are advancing towards Mitau, the chief town of Courland. They have captured Takum, Kandau and Zabet. The Belshevists are reported to be retiring in a panic.

A Russian wireless message claims that the Bolshevists have advanced up the Dvina River, and have captured Vystavka, 140 miles south-eastward of Archangel

#### MR. CHURCHILL ON THE RUSSIAN MENACE.

In a speech at the Savoy Hotel, Mr. Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for War, said Europe was in an extremely critical state. Nobody knew what was happening in Russia, and what the outcome would be, except that it would be extremely menacing to the world's peace. Nobody knew what would be the future of the Central Powers, or the burden that would be cast upon us by their dissolution. We were largely exhausted. Only by courage, energy, discipline and unity would the Empire surmount its difficulties.

## GERMAN GENERAL'S REMARK-

### ABLE SUGGESTION

General Hoffman, Chief of Staff to Marshal Hindenburg, has been interviewed by the correspondent of the "Daily Express" at Berlin. General Hoffman said that unless Russian Bolshevism was crushed the Entente's triumph would be sterile. Bolshevism must be crushed by force, and this would require a large Entente army marching shoulder to shoulder with the German army. This must be done soon, otherwise the next war would be between the Entents and the Bolshevists, to rescue European civilisation.

### BOLSHEVIK PORTRAITS.

SUME OF THE COMMISSARIES.

#### HIGH PERCENTAGE OF FOR-EIGNERS.

One of the most curious features of the Bolshevist movement is the high per-intage of non-Russian elements amongst its leaders (writes a corres-

por lent to the Sydney 'Sun.')

of the 20 or 30 commissaries of leaders who provide the central machinery of the Bolshevist movement not less than 75 per cent. are Jews. Karachan is an Armenian. Peters, the head of the Moscow Extraordinary Commission and Vateseitis, the Commander-in-Chaef, are Letts. Only Lenin, Bucharin. Petrovsky, Tehitcherin, Lunacharsky, and Krilenko are Russians. Of these Lenin is a law upto himself, Bucharin is an independent with independent views and an independent attitude inside the party, Krilenko is a degenerate, while Tchitcherin and Lunacharsky are to be regarded rather as sentimental and somewhat feebleminded visionaries than as active revolutionaries.

If Lenin is the brains of the movement, the Jews provide the executive officers. Of all the Bolshevist leaders Petrovsky, the Commissionary for the Interior, and a former member of the Duma, is practically the only one who can in any way be described as a working man. The rest are all intellectuals of bourgeois or petty bourgeois

origin.

ZINOVIEFF.

If the gulf between Lenin and Trotsky is a wide one, there is little to choose, with regard to general ability and influence, between Trotsky and Zinovieff. Trotsky, it is true, is generally regarded both in Russia and outside it as the second man in the nolshevist Party, and the probable sucshevist Party, and the probable successor of Lenin Trotsky, too, it was who was summoned from the front last August, after the attempt on Lenin's life, to take charge of the Bolshevist rudder of State. And yet it may be doubted whether the impetuous Commissary for War has as great an influence with Lenin as the more logical and strictly 'Bolshevist' Zinovieff, who during many years of exile has been Lenin's closest friend and inseparable

companion.

Ovsei Gershon Apfelbaum, alias Zinovieff, Radomyslsky, Shatsky, Grigorieff, was born in the Ukraine in 1885. In his early youth he came under Lenin's influence, and has remained under it ever since. Like nearly all the genuine Bolshevist leaders, he suffered imprisonment during the days of the old regime, and after his release was forced to flee abroad. During the 10 years immediately preceding the war he was one of the most active members of the Bolshevist Central Committee, and for some years was secretary of the party.— the beginning of the war he was with Lenin in Galicia, and took a firm stand beside his chief in his wholesale denunciation of militarism and of the war aims of both sets of belligerents. From 1914 until the March Revolution he edited with Lenin the 'Social-Democrat,' a paper published in Switzerlasd and devoted mainly to a sweeping condemnation of those Socialists who supported the war or who made no active resistance to it.

Of short at ure, broad-shouldered, clean-shaven, with firm mouth, cold. calculating eyes, abnormally large head and high forehead. Zisovieff certainly gives one the impression of a man of intellect. It is a cruel face, but one feels instinctively that is the face of a man of reflective, logical cruelty, rather than of the passionate nature of a Trotsky. A fiery orator, Zinovieff has something of the dialectical brilliance of Lenin. He has, however, tew original ideas, and must be regarded chiefly as a phonograph of his master.

to the preceding types, but because it affords a striking example of the depths to which the mind, soured against society, can sink in its contorted perversion.

#### BUCHARIN AND KAMENEFF.

One of the most interesting Bolshevist types, in that he is not a mere mouthpiece of Lenin, is Bucharin. The son of a Court official and a man of good education. Bucharin has maintained an independent position inside

the Bolshevist Party without ever tak.

the Bolshevist Party without ever taking any responsible office. He was the chief Bolshevist opponent of the Brest Treaty, and has written several good pamphlets on the Bolshevist movement. One of these is his notorious 'Programme of the Communists'—a book which reveals with almost brutat nakedness the real aims and aspirations of the Bolshevists. Still under 40, of small stature but of great personal courage, he is theoretically more extreme and more doctrinaire in his ideas than Lenin. He is, moreover, the one Bolshevist who is not afraid to criticise i enin or to cross swords with him in a dialetical duel.

As far as pure intellect is concerned Kameneff must rank after Lenin as one of the chief intellectual forces of the covement. Only 36 years old, with his blick moustache and beard Kameneff looks very much ofder than his age. Like the majority of his concagues he is a Jew, his real name being Rose fieldt. He was born of rich parents and under the old regime was a 'hereditary honorary burgher.' A graduate of Moscow University, he acquired his Socialistic tendencies during his student days, and like many aussians students came into collision with the police before his 15th year. was a member of the first Brest delegation, and has written a book on this much-discussed treaty. After the Brest peace he was appointed Bolshevist Ambassador to Vienna, but was unable to proceed to his post owing to his arrest by the Finns, who kept him in prison until last July. To day he first an important role as President of the Moscow Soviet. He is a man of theories rather than a man of blood, and is more moderate in his views than the majority of his colleagues.

A type very different from any of the preceding is represented by Lunacharsky. This man is a Russian of good family and the son of a State Councillor, Tall, with slightly droopcouncillor. Tall, with slightly drooping shoulders, silky beard and moustache and pince-nez, he is a man of mild appearance, mild manners, and soft speech. He radiates mildness and softness, and he dabbles in Bolshevism as he dabbles in art. He is essentially the amiable visionary, the Bolshevist crank, the Bolshevist educationist. While no one could possibly be atraid of Lunacharsky as a revolutionary force, there is no doubt that this revolutionary idealist is of considerable service to the Bolshevists as a propaganda agent. He is at the head of the Bolshevist Department of Education.

Lunacharsky, however, has been instrumental in bring back Gorky, if not as a Bolshevist sheep, at least into the Bolshevist fold. Forky now directs a Bureau of Literature in Petrograd, where talented but starving members of the aristocracy and the intelligentsia are engaged in translating William Morris and Ruskin for the edification

of the proletariat,

the Bolshevists in another respect When it was found that the Bolshevist persecution of the Church was creating a bad impression amongst the workmen and the peasants, Lunacharsky, as an original adherent to the dox Faith, was called upon to pour oil upon the troubled waters and to start a 'Bolshevising' movement inside the Church itself. In the autumn of last year he engaged, therefore, in a number of public 'disputes' with the more liberal priests of the Orthodox Church, at which each side was anowed to state its own case. It was on one of these occasions that Lunacharsky made his famous speech in which he compared Lenin's persecution of the capitalists with Christ's expulsion of the moneylenders from the Temple, finishing with the startling peroration that 'if Christ had been alive to-day He would have been a Bolshowist'

#### THE RUSSIAN TERROR.

#### WHAT BOLSHEVISM IS.

Lecturing at King's College on Social Conditions in Russia Under Bolshevism, Mr. R. Bruce Lockhart, head of the British Mission to Russia, said his position as a Government official precluded him from referring to two of the most interesting phases of the Russian question, namely, the Allied policy in regard to Russia and the foreign policy of the Rolsheviks.

Having traced the rise of Bolshevism, which meant the dictatorship of the proletariat, with international Bolshevism for its ultimate goal, Mr. Lockhart said amongst its adherents were many brave and sincere men, however much they might be misguided. The movement was essentially a non-working man's movement, its leaders for the most part being violent revolutionaries of the upper and intellectual classes, and by far the most active of the members were Jews of the real revolutionary type. Most of the leaders were men of about 35 years of age, the oldest being under 50. They were all intellectuals and of very artistic temperament. Lenin, the leader of the party, was a most remarkable man, who possessed the complete confidence of all those who worked under him in his professed object of turning the European military war into a European civil war. It was a profound mistake to imagine that the Bolsheviks desired universal peace, and the steps taken by them in that direction was a mere pretence to further their real object.

Dealing with life in Moscow and Petrograd in the days of the insurrection during the time he was in those places, Mr. Lockhart said it seemed to be a horrible nightmare. Everything over which the Bolsheviks had control, even life or death, could be bought for a price. The great and damning fault of Bolshevism was that in constructive

of Bolshevism was that in constructive policy it had produced a state of misery, famine and unemployment, which was

The Bolshevism of Lenin was not directed against the capitalist classes alone; it was equally directed against Socialists in general, and in the Bolsheviks press Mr. Arthur Henderson and his party were constantly denounced as renegades and paid slaves of capital. Bolshevism had brought the output of Russia to a standstill, and by unrestricted paper circulation had brought about economic chaos.

Even the Bolsheviks themselves admitted that under their regime living for the working classes had risen 37 times. Thousands were dying daily, and hundreds of thousands were in direnced. The most ardent supporters of Bolshevism admitted that it could not exist unless the doctrine came into universal practice. Russia to-day was in a state of moral collapse; famine was rampant and it was only in the Red Army that food could be obtained.

## Red Russia.

## Described by Eye-Witnesses

## American Senate Inquiry.

The following interesting article on "Red Russia" is taken from the March number of the "New York Times" monthly magazine "Current History":—

The investigation by the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate, begun 11th February, 1919, shed some new light on the Red regime in Russia. Two of the principal witnesses at the hearing were Dr. W. C. Huntington, who from 1916 until the early fall of 1918, was in Russia as a Commercial Attache of the American Embassy at Petrograd, and Dr. George S. Simons, Superintendent since 1907 of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Russia and Finland, one of the last Americans to leave Russia.

Dr. Huntington said that not more than 8 per cent of the Russian people were in favour of the Bolsheviki. They were held in submission, he added, by terroristic means and by a mercenary force of soldiers made up principally of Letts and Chinese. He said that he left Moscow on 16th August last, accompanied by officials of other Allied nations, in each instance the nation concerned leaving one official behind to care for its affairs and nationals. In the case of the United States the official left behind was Consul General Poole.

In answer to a question as to the extent of murder by official order in Russia, Dr. Huntington produced a copy of an order addressed to all Soviets in Russia, which called for the slaughter "en masse" of all persons

slaughter "en masse" of all persons who failed to support the Bolshevist regime. The order was issued by M. Petrovski, the Bolshevist Commissiary for Home Affairs. It was dated 5th September, 1918, and read:—

To all Soviets—The murder of Volodarski and Uritski, the attempt on Lenine and the shooting of masses of our comrades in Finland, Ukraine, the Don, and Czechoslovakia, the continual discoveries of conspiracies in our rear, open acknowledgment by the Right Social Revolutionary Party and other counter-revolutionary radicals of their part in these conspiracies, together with the insignicant extent of serious repressions and shooting of masses of White Guards and Bourgeoisie on the part of the Soviets, all these things show that notwithstanding frequent pronouncements orging mass terror against the Social Revolutionists, White Guards, and Bourgeoisie, no real terror exists.

Such a situation should decidedly be stopped. An end should be put to weakness and softness. All Right Social Revolutionists known to local Soviets should be immediately arrested. Numerous hostages should be taken from the Bourgeoisie and officer classes.

At the slightest attempt to resist or the slightest movement among the White Guards, shooting of masses of hostages should be begun without fail. Initiative in this matter rests especially with the local Executive Committees.

All branches of the Government must take measures to seek out and arrest persons hiding under false names and shoot without fail anybody connected with the work of the White Guards. All the above measures should be put immediately into execution, and indecisive action on the part of the local Soviets must be reported to the People's Commissary for Home Affairs. Not the slightest hesitation or the slightest indecisiveness in using mass terror.

indecisiveness in using mass terror,

#### FOOD CONDITIONS

Three letters were read into the record by Dr. Huntington, all from a person of the highest standing, still in Russia, and whose name for that reason was not disclosed for publication. These letters painted a terrible picture of conditions in the Russian capital. The first, in part, reads:—

I am glad you are not here just now. Living conditions are awfully hard. Have you ever seen people dying in the streets? I did three times, two men and one old woman. They were not sick, just horribly thin and pale.

It's awfully hard, and I would not have believed it if I had not seen it myself. These three cases illustrate conditions in Petrograd better than description. People are dying quietly, horribly quietly, without groan or curse, poor, helpless creatures, slaves of the terrible regime of to-day.

The next letter was dated 20th Sep-

To-day Mr. Poole (American Consul General at Moscow) left Russia. He was the last link between your human world over there and the madhouse here. You cannot imagine what is going on in this country. Everything that is cultured, wealthy,

accomplished, or educated is being persecuted and systematically destroyed.

We all live under a perpetual strain under fear of arrest and execution. Yesterday bulletins appeared on the corners of all the streets announcing that the Allies and the bourgeoisic have been spreading cholera and hunger all over Russia and calling for the open slaughter of the latter.

People here are starving in accordance with four categories. The first category, the workmen, get one-

category, the workmen, get onefourth of a pound of bread and two
herrings every two days. The
second category, the workmen who do\\neasy work, get one-eighth of a pound
and two herrings every two days.
The third category, the people who
"drink other people's blood," that is,
people who live by mental work, get
two herrings every two days and no
bread; while the fourth category,
the others who "drink other people's
blood," sometimes get two herrings,
generally nothing at all. I enclose
the slip from the official paper which
mentions these four categories.

People who have a little money run away from Russia. They sell all they possess, and just run. They go mainly to the Baltic provinces and to the Ukraine. And you know it is the German Consulate there which helps them to get permits and tickets.

The third and last letter, dated about 1st October, tells of four new decrees, the first, concerning the seizure of bourgeois lodgings; the second, forced hard labour for the bourgeoisie; the third, requisition of warm clothes for the Red Army; and the fourth, concerning the distribution of food.

#### INDUSTRIAL CHAOS.

Dr. Huntington said that all papers other than Bolshevist organs were suppressed. When asked what were the results of the nationalisation of industries, he replied that in nearly every case the factories had come to grief. Among the committees of workmen that had been placed in charge of the various factories when the decree of nationalisation was issued, factions had sprung up, and friction and quarrels developed over details, with the result that a few of the factories, if any, continued to run. Dr. Huntington added:—

The principal industry left in Russia now is printing paper money. I have seen the complete overthrow in Russia of all that we know in human life as it exists here at home. I have seen a condition of absolute chaos in all human relations develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop in Russian develop develop in Russian develop develop in Russian develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop develop dev

all human relations develop in Russia. I have seen conditions attained that amount to nothing less than a reign of absolute terrorism.

Those in authority take any measures they see fit, no matter how unscrupulous. Men and women are held as hostages. Their army is made up principally of Lettish mercenaries and Chinese. They are also using some Austro-Hungarians. To the so-called army have been added other citizens who are forced to serve through threats against their wives and little children.

The armies they are reported to have are not fired by loyalty to a great cause, but are to a large extent made up of men whose condition is such that they have joined in order to be clothed and fed.

Dr. Huntington said that 85 per cent of the Russian population was of the peasant class, and that 7 per cent of the population were workmen. This 92 per cent, he said, no longer sympathised with the revolution, and was held in check by the terrorist machine.

#### MILLIONS FOR PROPAGANDA.

That the Bolshevist group in Russia is spending millions of dollars in propaganda in other countries was asserted. In this connection, Major Lowry Humes, the Judge Advocate in charge of the examination of witnesses, produced an official translation of a Bolshevist Government order appropriating 2,000,000 roubles for propaganda purposes in enemy, friendly, and neutral countries. The order, which is said to be one of many, and was placed in the record as official proof, was dated December, 1917. It reads:—

#### Order-

For the appropriation of 2,000,000 roubles for the requirements of the revolutionary internationalist movement.

Whereas, the Soviet authority stands on the ground of the principles of the international solidarity of the proletariat and the brotherof the proletariat and the brotherhood of the workers of all countries; and

Whereas, the struggle against the war and imperialism can lead to complete victory only if conducted on an international scale.

The Council of People's Commissaries considers it absolutely necessary to take every possible means, including expenditure of money, for the assistance of the Left Internationalist wing of the workingman movement in all countries, whether these countries are at war or in alliance with Russia or are maintaining a neutral position.

To this end the Council of People's Commissaries orders the appropriation for the requirements of the revolutionary international movement, to be put at the disposal of the foreign representatives of the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, of 2,000,000 roubles.

LENINE, TROTZKY, GOUCH-BRUEVICH, GARBUNOV

Dr. Simons, who was before the subcommittee on 12th February, declared that the Bolshevist ascendancy in Russia was due, in the main, to the influx of agitators from the east side of New York City. He said:—

I should like to make it plain that among my best friends and among the finest Americans I have known are men of Jewish blood. The unpleasant facts that I shall have to disclose in nowise refer to them. The persons that have gone into Russia and joined in this diabolical thing over there are apostate Jews, men who deny their God and who have forsaken the religion and the teachings of their fathers.

Dr. Simons testified that a catechism of atheism had been added to the curriculum of the Russian public schools. He declared:—

The Bolshevik is not only an atheist but he also seeks to make all

atheist but he also seeks to make all religions impossible. They assert that all misery is due to the superstition that there is a God. One of their officials told me: "We now propose to enlighten our children, and with this purpose in view, we are issuing a catechism on atheism for use in all the schools," The man who told me this was the Commissary for Enlightenment and Education.

In reply to an inquiry as to what part the Germans had in the forwarding of the plans of the Bolsheviki, Dr. Simons stated that all the German newspapers in Russia which had been suppressed by the old regime reappeared simultaneously with the accession of the Bolsheviki to power, and that everything German or pro-German was fostered. Upon being asked the real attitude of the Bolsheviki as regarded the two groups of belligerents in the war, the witness said:—

Lenine and Trotzky were always saying bitter things against the Allies. They scattered posters in which they described the Allies as the "blood-drinking and tlesh-eating Allies." They named France and England, but, as I recollect it, did not specify the United States, the reason, in the question of the Allied diplomatic representatives, being what may be described as a sort of strategical trick. They figured it out that in the event Bolshevism failed, as they knew it might; they would need a land of refuge, and they wanted the United States to be their asylum.

Dr. Simons told of the wholesale murder of innocent civilians, the outraging of young girls by the Red Guard, the seizure without legal process of all property, the urging of young girls to go into the streets to

follow a life of prostitution, the lying together of helpless people and throw ing them into a river to drown, the absolute suppression of free speech arid a free press, and the official starv ing of those who do not endorse Bol shevist teachings and programmes.

On 13th February, two American Vico-'Consuls, Ralph M. Dennis, of Chicago, and Robert F. Leonard, of Minneapolis, who had recently re turned from Russia, were heard by tho Investigating committee, Mr. Dennis declared that In the ten months that he spent in Russia under Bolshevist rule, ho had visited many of the large cities, and during that time had never seen a single carpenter or mason at work, and that everything' was allowed to go to .destruction. Farming still continues, but, according to estimates, only about 10 per cent of . the normal acreage is under cultivation.

Mr. Leonard stated that the Bol sheviki aimed at free love, and hoped to do away with marriage, planning for the establishment of contract marriage. Ho told of the organisation of what is known as Committees of the .Poor, in order to control those who possessed anything. He said: —

These committees wore put up' by the Central Government Their mem bers aro drawn from the rifE-raff, the men who drank up all they had, tho . utterly, worthless.- . The old- Soviets, owing to; the fact that the peasants in them owned larid, could; not be 'controlled, so they put those com-, lrilttces in power to handle the situa tion.. I know of villages in which there wore no eligiblos for these com mittees, and In such instances .Lenlne sent in "poor cliglbles" to take tlio positions.

, Tho witness 'told of tho condition to which the City of Petrograd. hod been reduced by Bolshevism. Before the ascendancy of the Bolsheviki, Petro- 'grad had been a city of 2,000,000 in habitants; at the tlmo of his. depar ture, 13th November, 1918, -its popula-" tlon numbered about a' million.

tion numbered about half a million.

MME. BRESHKOVSKAYA'S STORY.

Mme. Breshkovskaya, who is known all over Russia as the "Grandmother of the Revolution," and who has been exiled by the Bolsheviki, appeared before the Senate Committee on 14th February. Among other things, she said:—

In the little more than one year of Bolshevist rule there have been twice as many Russians, men, women, and children, killed as there were soldiers killed at the front during the almost three years that Russia was actively in the war. For instance, there were 2,000 officers in one prison who were killed at one time. Every man, woman, or child who opposes Bolshevism in any way risks his or her life.

Everything that made life worth while has gone. Every day trainloads of supplies and valuable things leave for Germany from Moscow. In Russia there is no industry, the schools are closed, and if they were open there would be no books, not even any ink, for the pupils. All over Russia there are no schools now. There is no food to amount to anything, no clothes, nothing at all. Transportation is paralysed. We have no tools or implements of any kind, not even scissors or knives.

overthrown, we were happy. We expected, and had reason to expect. excellent laws, we expected peace and political and social freedom. None of these things has been realised. We thought we were going to get a National Assembly and a Constitution, and we got neither. For six months we were free, and then came those German-dominated Bolsheviki.

The Germans had been preparing for years—we know it now—for this very thing. Their spies have been everywhere in Russia for a long, long time. It was out of German spying and intrigue that Lenine and Trotzky came. Trotzky and Lenine and the

came. Trotzky and Lenlne and the. group supporting them received mil lions from Germany for propaganda,' and they carried It to a gruesome success. In the autumn of 1917 wo saw tho clouds gathering, and wo hoped and prayed that our Allies would come. To-day Russia Is In ruins. If you had given us 50,000 good soldiers thore would havo been 110 Bolshevism. The peasants aro against tho Bolsheviki; but they have 110 arms. The Bolsiioviki rule with an army of Letts, Chinese, Magyurs, and Germans.

#### LETTER FROM AN A ItCHBISHOF.

Tho Arolibishop of Canterbury made public In London on 14th February a letter from the Archbishop ' of Omsk, President, of tho Supremo Administra tion of tho Orthodox Church in Rus sia, which gave these further facts: —

Having seized supreme power in Russia in 1917, the Maximalists pro ceeded to destroy not only the culti- ' vated classes of society but lmvo also swept awuy religion itsolf, tlio repre sentatives of tho Church, and reli gious monuments venerated by all.

The Kremlin cathedrals of Moscow and those in the towns of Yaroslav and Simferopol have been sacked ami many churches have been de filed, Historical sucrlstles as well us the famous libraries of- tho Patri archs of Moscow and Petrograd havo been pillaged. Vladimir, Metro politan of Kiev, twenty bishops, and hundreds of priests havo been ass assinated. Before killing thoin tho Bolsiioviki cut off the limbs of their victims, sonic of whom were buried alive. Religious processions followed by groat masses of people at .Petro grad, Tuula, Kharkov, aud Eollgalitch were fired upon.

"Wherever the Bolsiioviki are In power tlio Christian Church is perse cuted witli even greater ferocity than in the first three centuries of the Christian era. Nuns aro being violated, women made common pro perty, and licenso and tlio lowest

perty, and license and the lowest passions are rampant. One sees everywhere death, misery, and

famine. The population is utterly cast down and subjected to most terrifying experiences. Some are purified by their sufferings, but others succumb.

Only in Siberia and the region of the Ural Mountains, where the Bolsheviki have been expelled, is the existence of the civil and religious population protected under the aegis of law and order.

There are villages in Russian Poland where the houses are built entirely of salt.

### THE RUSSIAN CHAOS.

Terrors of Bolshevism.

Queenslander's Experience.

The Minister for Defence (Senator Pearee) lias issued some extracts from a letter written by Michael Zadorosly, a former Queensland ' resident, from Ghita on 23rd.

The letter, which was received by Mr. James H. Fitzpatriek, of J. H. Royvray and Co., Miles, Queensland, says that "at last the Socialists of ex treme type have been driven into- the ranges of Siberia, and I am in a posi tion to write abroad.

"We have been," lie adds, "cut off from .the world for about six months, and before that the postal officials were too busy diseussing their class posi tions and ensuring themselves the right to do nothing alid get big wages, and could not undertake to deliver any let ters with any sort of a guarantee.

"There was no chance to get away from - Russia, .because passports were strictly examined) and anyone suspect ed of belonging to the class not strictly proletarian was debarred from leaving, and had to live or die as best lie could that is, if he was not butchered by the blood-thirsty lovers of liberty and

I '

!

;

brotherhood.

"In common with other landowners I had to part with stock, lands, and woods, robbed not by aggressive foreign enemies, but by my own neighbors who, in their ignorance and savageness, were instigated by unscrupulous benefactors of the human race.

"I had to clear out of native parts, both as a liberal and a British subject being threatened by destruction. In my wandering during the past six months over the breadth of my 'native country' I had to do all sorts of jobs, from selling newspapers to teaching Latin and Greek. A good deal of starving fell to my lot during this holidaying.

"The Bolsheviks are gone now, but the results their reign has left are tre-

mendous.

"Everything is destroyed—factories, workshops, railway lines, rolling stock. However poor Russia was under the Czar, it will take years before she is restored to the possession of what she had then.

"The Socialists, just like the Laborites in Queensland, meaning to harm and put down meat kings, wool kings, and other kings, and benefit the havenots, have dealt the havenots such a blow as never capitalists could have dealt, and from which the worker is not likely to recover.

"I know hundreds of American Jews

who came to Russia as anarchists and Socialists, and were pro-Germans to the bone. They were quite willing to help Germany all they could.

"They did help her temporarily, but ultimately both the Russian and the German proletriat will suffer for their

socialistic experiments. = '

"If a man is not- deprived,. of com mon rights, and not proclaimed an out law for possessing more head of cattle than his neighbor, still he lives under the threat of being deprived of his pro perty by the lovers of equality.?'

## RUSSIA.

## Spread of Bolshevism.

## UKRAINE UNDER THE INFLUENCE.

THE BADA DISSOLVED.

## STARVATION AND DRUNKEN ORGIES, i

n (Pnblished in 'The Times.'

LONDON Saturday.

'The Times' correspondent at Petro grad states that the rapid spread of ciyil 'war in all parts of Russia reveals the steady progress of Bolshevism. There are signs of disintegration everywhere.

Fighting and disorders are pending in Siberia, which is expected -to struggle tor the restoration of law. and order, but the Siberian Soviets are siding with Lenin's Government. Large bodies of Bolshevik troops have been sent to strengthen the Soviets' hands.

Ukraine is gradually coming under Bol shevik influence. /The Soviets have organ ised. The Rada has been dissolved. '?? A

portion of the Ukraine troops who sup port the Rada are putting up a fight against the Bolshevik legions, which i are progressing in all directions.

\*The dispute between the So viet and the Ukraine is chiefly a question whether the latter shall help the Bolshe-.

yiks or the Cossacks.

The Polish rising at Mohileff is further complicating ' the situation.

The Roumanian news is conflicting. It 19 reported that the ..Bolsheviks are at

tempting to advance on Jassy.

There is an enormous influx of liber ated Austro-German Jews, chiefly from Tuikestan and Siberia. There are 40,000 in Petrograd alone, hungrily wandering -the streets and struggling for a share of the scanty supply of food. They are im bibing Bolshevik doctrines, but they de clare that if a German revolution is achieved they will not imitate the Rus sian chaos.

## F. USSIAN BEMORALISATION.

#### SHOCKING ATROCITIES.

### SEVERAL THOUSANDS OF PERSONS SHOT.

LONDON, Thursday,

The Australian and New Zealand Press Association learns that the latest offical news from Russia reveals extraordinary demoralisation. Appalling outrages are general. The British Consul at Ekaterinburg, as the result of special inquiry in the Perm district, reports that the number of victims totals several thousand, who were mostly shot. Tortures usually preceded the murders. A girl aged 19, who was accused of espionage, was slowly pierced with a bayonet 13 times in the same wound, but is still alive. In other cases the victims were wounded with the bayonet 20 to 15 times. Forty-six priests out of 300 in the Perm district were killed, while 66 children were taken as hostages and mowed down with machine guns. In some cases the Borsheviks took ransom from the relatives after the victims had been secretly killed.

#### COMMANDED BY GERMANS

M. Ducherse, formerly French Consulate Petrograd, who revisited Russia, reports that the mintary and civil power of the Bolsheviks is declining, owing to supplies of feeding for its followers becoming exhausted. Paper money is valueless. There are frequent desertions The peasant troops are demoralising the army. There is constant dissension between the Soviets at Petrograd and Moscow, and in those provinces the peasants refuse to bring their stocks into the towns, and are hiding their food.

that most of the commanding officers of the Red Army are Germans, and are introducing German methods. The Red Commissaries are mostly Jews. In order to prevent desertion the officers are constantly watched, and their families held as hostages. The well-to-do classes are living in constant fear of death

## CONDEMNED WITHOUT ACCUSATION.

The Red Commissaries are mostly young and ill-educated, and condemn people to death without making any accusation, and frequently assist in the murder of the victims. Starvation is giving rise to epidemics and the extermination of entire villages. The educational system is entirely disorganised by the Bo'sheviks appointing teachers chosen by the students.

#### MENACE TO THE WORLD'S PEACE

At a gathering at the Savoy Hotel the Secretary for War (M). Winston Churchill said that Europe was in an extremely critical condition. No one knew what was happening in Russia, or what would be the outcome of the situation there, except that it would be extremely menacing to the world's peace. Nor did any one know what would be the future of the Central Powers, or the burden cast upon Britain by their dissolution. Britain was to a large extent exhausted, and only by courage, energy, discipline, and unity could the Empire surmount the difficulties which beautiful.

The correspondent at Berlin of the Daily Express' says that General Hoftman, who was Marshal von Hindenburg's chief of staff, in an interview, stated that unless Eussian Bolshevism was crushed the Entente's triumph would be sterile. Bolshevism, he declared, must be crushed by force, and to crush it would require a large Entente army, marching shoulder to shoulder with the German army. The work must be done soon, as otherwise the next war would be between the Entente and the Bolshevika for the rescue of European civilisation.

ATTEMPT ON M. LENIN'S LIFE.

#### ALLEMPT ON M. LENIN'S LIFE.

Shots fired from a house in Moscow injured the chauffeur of M. Lenin, the Bolshevik Premier, but he escaped injury.

A few days ago it was announced that a similar attempt had been made on the life of M. Trotsky, co-Premier with M. Lenin M. Irotsky was attacked by Red Guard soldiers in a railway carriage at Viteosk, but he also escaped injury, although two members of the staff were bit by bullets.\]

## Che Secret of Bolshevik Power.

## Che Lever of Starvation.

As Seen by an Eyewitness Lately Returned to England from Russia

Mr. H. V. Keeling, whose natrative has already been partly given to the world by The Westminster Gazette and in the form of lectures, succeeded in escaping from Russia and getting to England some cight weeks ago (writes a correspondent in The

Sphere of April 12).

Mr. Keeling went to Russia five years ago to teach workmen in a Russian firm which had acquired British patents certain new processes in the lithographic and printing trades. For 20 years previously he had been a member of a Bruish trade union (the Lithographic Artists, Designers, Engravers and Process Workers), and he took an active part in the movement for raising wages in his own trade. After being in the service of the Russan firm for one year, he undertook certan agencies for British firms, and in order to keep in repair machines which they have sold became a fully qualified mechanic in the printing trade, and as such was admitted to membership of the Russian Printing Trades Union. He thus spent practically all his time as a workman among workmen. In 1918 he went into the country and opened up a little workshop for repairing all sorts of things, from steam mills to clocks and boots, walking and cycling in pursuit of this business, and getting intimate experience of conditions in the country. In these ways he made himself so useful—not to say indispensable—that the Soviets insisted on his remaining in the country, and

even gave him a special invitation to sit on a Soviet himself. In October last he was appointed to the position of chief photographer to the Committee of the Public Education, presided over by M. Lunacharski, whom he describes as an amiable visionary, with eyes shut to the realities of the Bolshevik regime. Mr. Keeling's final escape from Russia will be told in book form very shortly. Mr. Keeling was in Russia during the whole period of the revolution till January 9 of this year, and during all this time he associated with the working people in town and country, and was in a unique position to hear their views and judge their real opinions. He had, in fact, many friends in the Soviets who treated him with the atmost confidence and showed him the whole working of the machine.

-The Secret of Bolshevism .-

"What," I asked, "has happened to the Russian people? Is Bolshevism as black as it is painted, and if it is, how can a

whole nation submit to it?"

"The answer," he said, "is that the Russian people are starving, and when you are starving you don't think about other atrocities. You whink about nothing except just to scrape together enough food to keep yourself alive. You don't trouble much whether you are going to be shot yourself or whether other people are being shot. You are collecting food like an animal. I left Russia six weeks ago, but even now I can't get over the habit of thinking about my food, and every day I find myself wondering where the next meal is to come from." Mr. Keeling expanded this idea, and as he spoke I seemed at last to get into the atmosphere of Bolshevik Russia—on the side of millions of people, too absorbed with the ravening thought of how to get food for themselves and their wives and children to think of anything beyond the moment, and too exhausted to resist; on the other, a favoured few relatively well fed and prepared for any violence and cruelty to save themselves from losing their privilege and slipping into the vortex of famine. For whatever may have been the original idea of Bolshevism, its secret now, as Mr. Kee-

ling explained it, is simply that it confers upon some and denies to others the privilege of eating, and that all its other deeds of violence and cruelty are as nothing to the supreme cruelty of withholding food. Mr. Keeling went on to explain the system, describing it without colour or emotion, as if, living in the world, he had come to take its horrors for granted.

"The population," he said, "were originally divided by the Bolsheviks into four categories,' which exactly turn upside down the social classes of other countries. These are (1) manual labourers; (2) clerical workers, provided they employ nobody; (3) everybody who has employed anybody, from the small householder employing one servant to the manufacturer employing a thousand hands; (4) all the former adle rich, princes, aristocrats, landowners, courtiers, and rentiers of every description. The penalty for failing to please the Bolsheviks is to be degraded from a class in which you get scarcely any. The rations for these

classes are, or were, on a descending scale, and even the lowest class was supposed to get enough to keep alive. But in the last few months there hasn't been anything like enough for the first class, and scarcely anything for the others. Class IV., the former rich, I should say, has disappeared. They have got out of the country, or been starved to death, or been shot, or turned themselves into workmen in order to get food. I can't tell you more, for nobody knows. The other classes have got sorted into two classes, those that get some food and those that get hardly any officially. To get food you must be in with the Bolsheviks, and then they put you into the first class. It is very difficult to get there, and very easy to get out. They degrade you for slight reasons which you can't discover, and then you starve. Whole trade unions have been degraded because they opposed the Bolsheviks or offended them somehow."

the Bolsheviks or offended them somehow."
"But what is this official food system,

"You have cards and coupons very much as here, but all private trading is forbidden, and nearly all the shops in Petrograd are shut. To take their place there are a few hundred municipal shops, and you have to be registered at one of these, and take your coupons there, if you are in the feeding class. You are supposed to receive half a pound of bread a day, and potatoes, butter, meat, and sugar, at fixed and reasonable prices; but, as a matter of fact, for a long time past nothing has been sold but bread, and even that failed for seven days in December. I have been six days without bread, and three days without anything to eat except the so-called public dinner, which consisted of watery soup, a small piece of very soft fish, and one-eighth of a pound of bread. Sometimes they have offered me oats, as if I were a horse, when there was no bread. All the children are in the first class, for the Bolshevik idea is that all the children should be in charge of the State while their parents go to work. But the children are starving all the same in great numbers."

-The Food Outcast and What Happens to

"But, it you are not in the first class or

Then you have to prowl about and try to get food secretly. But this is a punishable offence for which sometimes people may even be shot. People go into the country taking with them anything that they think the peasant will take in exchange for food, and get a hag of flour or a few potatoes. But it is illegal to go out of the town without a permit or to buy anything when you get there, so the Red Guard stop them and search them as they come back, and, if they find anything, confiscate it and very often arrest the people, and carry them off. I saw a woman who had gone into the country and got 30 lb. of flour frem her own native place for her children, who were starving, seized by the guard at a station when she was trying to get back. They took it from her, though she fell on

They took it from her, though she fell on her knees and implored them with sobs to let her keep only a few pounds. Then, when she found it was no use, she threw herself under a train and was killed. "It makes it worse," Mr. Keeling went on, "that you have quantities of money in your pocket, but can buy nothing. I have had roubles worth £600, according to old values, in my pocket, and not been able to buy a piece of bread. You don't trouble about money; you pay 5/ for a lump of sugar, if you can get it. A workman's wages are £100 a month in old values, but, though he can still buy a watch for £5, he can't buy a roll of bread for £50. The people who have the food won't sell it for roubles because they are worth nothing, and there is nothing to buy with them. So the Bolsheviks can't get the food, though they are always trying to, and having fights with peasants in consequence. I believe myself there is enough food in Russia to keep every one alive, for last harvest was very good; but it can't be got, and it's all being hoarded and concealed."

-The Well-fed Army .-

But again I asked, "Why do the Russians stand it: why don't they revolt and smash

the whole thing?"

"I don't quite know," said Mr. Keeling; "the Russians aren't like other people. They have been used to tyranny, and have a sort of submissiveness which makes them accept things. I can asure you they are sick to death of it, and that nine-tenths of the people who keep in with the Bolsheviks, and have to pretend to like them, would do anything to get rid of them, if they knew how. But you have to remem-

ber that the Bolshevike are very clever in feeding the people who are likely to fight. This is how it's done. Every man who joins the Red Army is sure of his own food, and also gets food for his wife and children. The army is fed before any one else, and out of all proportion to the other classes. Even the workmen get nothing till the army has had enough. So large

numbers of men join the army for the sake of geting food, and then, when they are in, they have to keep at it for fear of losing their food. Besides, if they try any tricks, they are not only punished, i.e., shot, themselves, but their wives and families and parents are starved. A man will stand almost anything rather than see his wife and children and parents starved to death, and the use they make of this kind of coercion is devilish. The soldiers have to be pretty coreful, for there are lots of spies among them, who instantly report any suspicious case, and when they go into action there are always machine guns behind them. Then, besides the regular Red Army, there is a special picked army, which gets anything it wants of food and anything else. And all these men know that of they don't fight they'd starve; so they fight to save their own food and to prevent their vives and children starving. That's their way of keeping alive." The thing straightened out a little. One saw this privileged, relatively well-fed class struggling to keep itself from falling into the pit and its hand against all the others. They were like men on a raft in mid-ocean, throwing their weaker comrades overboard to keep themselves afloat and make the rations go a little longer.

#### -"Not Quite Sane."-

Even so, there were more questions to ask. "How could the men at the top, Lenin, Trotsky, and the rest, Lenin at all events supposed to have some intelligence and humanity, sit there and let this go on? Were they devils or maniace?" Mr. Keeling had not put the question to himself in this precise way. To those who live under it, Bolshevism, I gather has become a kind of vast impersonal fatality. Mr. Keeling thought a little and then replied, "I suppose you would say they were not quite sane, according to our notions. But, as things are, they can't help themselves, and couldn't stop it if they chose. They have made the monster, and are as helpless in its hands as every one else."

"Bolshevism," in fact, I summed up, "has become a vested interest for its privileged

become a vested interest for its privileged class, and Lenin and Trotsky are obliged to go on feeding the few, starving the many, and shooting the objectors."

I pressed for a little more detail. Lenin and Trotsky were only two out of hundreds and thousands in the great starving conspiracy, and how could men be found who would go on day after day administering this diabolical system, with this expectacle of helpless misery under

their eyes?

"Most of them," said Mr. Keeling; "are quite young, some are notorious bad characters, and many are mere boys whom we should call hooligans in London. One boy of 17 I knew was Commissary, with power of life and death over 40 villages. He goes about armed with a Mauser pistol, and one day thrust it in my face threatening to shoot me on the spot. I knew how to deal with him, but Russian peasants do not; and dozens of such lads, a very little older, are terrorizing whole districts."

"What, then, are the peasants doing "The peasants have got rid of the la lords, and sat down and divided the la

lords, and sat down and divided the land. They quarrelled a good deal; but, on the whole, did it quite sensibly, each taking a bit of the best land, and then another bit of the worse, and so on, and in the same way arranging the forest rights between them. But the trouble is that while there is plenty of land in one village there is nothing like enough in another, so the distribution is very unequal, and there is great discontent in consequence. This sets worse, because, instead of having the splendid time they hoped for, they find there is nothing to buy, and they are always being worried and threatened by the Bolsheviks. They have no tea—only dried leaves for a substitute—no vodka, and no tobacco. They feel the loss of tobacco especially, and seemed to walk about in a dazed condition, like men used to drugs who had had suddently to go without. Peasants have implored me to give them tobacco, and will do almost anything for you for one pipefull."

"But are they doing any work?"

"Only just as much as they must to keep themselves alive, and many of them are likely to live all this year on last year's harvest and what is being hoarded. The next harvest is likely to be very bad, and then the famine which is now in the towns will begin to spread to the country, and one daren't think what will happen then."

-"It is Terrible to Live in Russia."-

"But don't the Soviets see this? Don't at least the people at Moscow, Lenin, and Trotsky, and the higher Soviet, see what

must happen?"

"My own belief is that they know the game is up, but don't know how to get out of it or what to do. The slightest sign of weakening and they are done. So they simply go ahead, working their machine round and round, and grinding out everybody they think dangerous. Even advanced Socialists are beginning to speak of the Czardom as the good old times.' No one is safe. It used to be thought that they didn't shoot Jews, for so many of them are Jews themselves. But two acquaintances of mine, both Jews, were shot a short time before I came away, and they had done nothing except try a little private trading. It is terrible to live in Russia in these times. As you walk about Petrograd you never see any one laugh or smile. Men and women are like shadows, and little children so wasted that they seem to be all eyes. And all the time people are disappearing, and nobody knows what becomes of them. Five years ago Petrograd had a population of 2,400,000. Now there are scarcely 700,000."

"Well, then, Mr. Keeling," I said finally, "what do you want me to say about it?"

"I want you first to say this interview is not copyright, and that any one may take the whole of it and reprint it and distribute it in any way he likes. I have no personal animosity against the Bolsheviks. They treated me as well as they could, and I have nothing to complain of on my own account. But I am a working man and a trade unionist, and I won't like to hear working men talking as if Bolshevism was

working men talking as it Bolshevism was a great and splendid experiment, to be copied in other countries, or as if they were helping the working people in Russia by saving 'No' to all proposals set before the Allies for dealing with it. I want to convince them that it is not a question of polities or theory at all, but just a question of humanity, in which we have got to do our duty and help. I have my own ideas of

what ought to be done, but at this moment
I want most to get into people's minds that
there is enormous suffering and misery
which we ought to stop, if we can. And
I want to say also that it won't do Social-\\nism any good to mix it up with Bolshev-\\nism, or to make people think that if Social-\\nism is tried, it must end in wholesale murder and starving millions of people to
death. But that is what will happen if
working people confuse Socialism with Bol-\\nehevism, and suppose that a Socialist must
support the Bolsheviks. The British work-\\ning people wouldn't stand Bolshevism for
one day themselves, and they must take
care that they are not helping to force it
on the Russian working people."
That is Mr. Keeling's moral, and thus it

Russian Demoralisation SHOCKING ATROCITIES.

The Australian and New Zealand Press Association learns that the latest offical news from Russia reveals extraordinary demoralisation. Appalling outrages are general. The British Consul at Ekaterinburg, as the result of special inquiry in the Perm district, reports that the number of victims totals several thousand, who were mostly shot. Tortures usually preceded the murders. A girl aged 19, who was accused of espionage, was slowly pierced with a bayonet 13 times in the same wound, but is still alive. In other cases the victims were wounded with the bayonet 20 to 15 times. Forty-six priests out of 300 in the Perm district were killed, while 66 children were taken as hostages and mowed down with machine guns. In some cases the Bolsheviks took ransom from the relatives after the victims had been secretly killed.

M. Ducherse, formerly French Consul at Petrograd, who revisited Russia, reports that the military and civil power of the Bolsheviks is declining, owing to supplies of feeding for its followers becoming exhausted. Paper money is valueless. There are, frequent desertions. The peasant troops are demoralising the army. There is constant dissension between the Soviets at Petrograd and Moscow, and in those provinces the peasants refuse to bring their stocks into the towns, and are

hiding their food.

Official reports from Vladivostock state

that most of the commanding officers of the Red Army are Germans, and are introducing German methods. The Red Commissaries are mostly Jews. In order to prevent desertion the officers are constantly watched, and their families held

as hostages. The well-to-do classes are

The Red Commissaries are mostly young and ill-educated, and condemn people to death without making any accusation, and frequently assist in the murder of the victims. Starvation is giving rise to epidemics and the extermination of entire villages. The educational system is entirely disorganised by the Bolsheviks appointing teachers chosen by the students.

At a gathering at the Savoy Hotel the Secretary for War (Mr. Winston Churchill) said that Europe was in an extremely critical condition. No one knew what was happening in Russia, or what would be the outcome of the situation there, except that it would be extremely menacing to the world's peace. Nor did any one know what would be the future of the Central Powers, or the burden cast upon Britain by their dissolution. Britain was to a large extent exhausted, and only by courage, energy, discipline, and unity could the Empire surmount the difficulties which beset it.

The correspondent at Berlin of the "Daily Express" says that General Hoff-man, who was Marshal von Hindenburg's chief of staff, in an interview, stated that unless Eussian Bolshevism was crushed the Entente's triumph would be sterile. Bolshevism, he declared, must

sterile. Bolshevism, he declared, must be crushed by force, and to crush it would require a large Entente army, marching shoulder to shoulder with the German army. The work must be done soon, as otherwise the next war would be between the Entente and the Bolshevika for the rescue of European civiliantion.

## THE RUSSIAN SITUATION,

## BOLSREVISM V. DEMOCIASY.

GOVERNMENT BY STARVATION.

In conversation with a "West Australian" reporter, Captain G. R. Turner. R-N.Y., who has been in Siberia nearly ever since the armistice, was able to throw some light on the obscurities of the Russian situation. Captain Turner is a Western Australian, but enlisted in Britain when the war broke out. He served for several years with Commander Locker-Lampson's armoured car force in Russia, and after the armistice went to Siberia, as intelli gence officer and interpreter, with the Bri tish Mission in charge of General Sir Alfred \]Knox.

Captain Turner explained that, associated with the British mission were strong French, American, and Japanese, and Italian missions. Their object was to get mn touch with the Kioltchak Government, supply it with arms and munitions, or gacse the railways and transport gene rally, and introduce more law and order into the country. Still another object, and one of the chief reasons for the pre sence of the mission, was to counteract the very powerful Ger man propaganda in Siberia, which was aimea as undermining brit-h power In India. In this connection, the mission achieved considerable success, though the effect of the German and Bolshevik ma chinations were seen in the Afghan trouble and the unrest on the indian frontier. The bulk of the Bolshevik egents were either Germans or Jews, and their opera tions were far-reaching and well planned.

Dealing with the question of Allied in tervention .in 'Russian affairs, against the Bolsheviks, Captain Turner said that there

democratic ideals. At the time of the re volution he was in command of the Black tiea fleet, and he fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks, but was set at liberty c? g to the esteem in which he was held. Loltchak had given a guaran tee to Britain that he would establish a ccustitutional form of government along dnemocratic lines. The Admiral's task was a difficult one, even when the Allies assist ed him with arms, munitions and supplies, us he had to operate at a great distance from his base, with only one railany ,t bhr command. One very great hanicap was his lack of oflicers. The peasantry .n whom he had mainly to rely for support nere not sufficiently educated' for the pur pose, 68 per cent. of them being unable to srad or write, while the officers of the old regime with whom he was thus compelled to surround himself, led hnn to be sus pected unjustly of monarchist sympathies. Koltchak's present position looked bad on paper, but the evacuation of Omsk had teen carried out on advice previously given br the Allies, and was a matter of com parative unimportance. -He believed that Koltchak would ultimately win through, and, when he did, Bol shevism would end in an internal revolution at Moscow. Ninety per cent of the population were really anti-Bolshevik, and the Bolshevik downfall when it came would be complete and final. The officers of the British and French missions were fully convinced that Koltchak was a capable leader, and also that he was utterly op Posed alike to the Bolsheviks and to the faction which sought to restore the mon archist regime. He also stood for a strong and united Russia instead of for its divi sion into a number of independent states. Dealing with Siberia, Captain Turner said that the Allied ,missions had restored a large measure of Jlaw and order, and as far west as Ekaterinburg the country was in a fair state. Living was much cheaper than in Australia, and the peasants were doing well. There was, however, a strong disnclination on their part to un

strong disinclination on their part to undertake production on a pre-war scale owing to their fear that the Bolsheviks would come back again and despoil them of the whole product of their labour. The country was a magnificently fertile one, and it was also enormously rich in metals, mine-

Touching on the fate of the ex-Imperial family of Russia, Captain Turner said that the British mission had satisfied themselves beyond all doubt that the whole family had perished. Many varying stories had been told regarding their end, but, though the mission had been compelled to depend on circumstantial evidence, they had established the fact that the ex-Car and his family were all thrown down a shaft, which was then blown in upon them by means of bombs.

## Glimpses of the Orient

### A Russian Officer.

DAYS SINCE THE REVOLUTION.

HIS BATTLES AGAINST BOLSHEVIKS.

THE AGONY OF HIS COUNTRY.

(By Adam McCay, Special Commissioner of Sydney "Sun.")

No. 47 .- (Copyright.)

SHANGHAL July 25.

This is a Russian naval officer's narrative of his doings since the second revolution in his country. It is the abstract of what he told, piece by piece, in long conversations, and it may serve to show something of the state of mind of a patriotic Russian.

At thirty years old he commanded in the Baltic Sea a destroyer of which he was proud, for she was a new type, of 2000 tons, and with a speed of well over 30 knots. But after Kerensky was displaced and the Trotsky-Lenin revolution occurred, he was no longer her commander.

tain was not the captain. The captain was a stoker elected by the rest, and I was kept on board as a navigation expert. I do not go away, though I expect the Germans will come and take me and my ship—and I do not want to be taken by Germans."

He stuck to his ship and his stoker captain for two reasons. First, because he did not want the revolutionary crew to be able to say that the officers had run away and left them to the Germans; second, because he was occasionally allowed to take the ship out to see what the Germans were doing and this seemed to him to be practical work in the war. But the time came when he saw that it was hopeless, and he saked

saw that it was hopeless, and he asked permission to leave the ship. It was refused, so he left without permission, risking being caught and shot as a "bourgeois officer." Then the Brest-Litovsk Treaty was signed, and Russia's troubles began.

"I wrote myself a certificate and a passport with somebody else's name on it, and let my beard grow. I put on dirty, clothes, and my face was dirty. I wished to go south and join the anti-Bolsheviks."

He was once arrested on his way southward, and expected to be shot, but bluffed his captors with rough peasant talk, and was released. Eventually he got south, and was able to join an "officers' regiment" formed of men like himself from the navy and the army.

"We were 3200, and we were all gay fellows, jolly fellows. It was bed fighting, but a very jolly life, except for some things which were most unpicasant. We fought many battles, and I think we were always beaten. And most of those july boys were killed. There were 400 left at the end."

Having but a limited command of English, he uses no lurid adjectives by way of rhetoric. Things are "good, bad, pleasant, unpleasant, agreeable, disagreeable." The "unpleasant" things happened when there was an enforced retirement before the Bolsheviks.

"It was our duty when a friend was wounded and lying on the battlefield to kill him. We could not take him away, and we would not leave him. So we had to take a revolver.

When you have been drinking whisky and soda with a man the night before, and his leg is smashed, it is not nice to take a revolver and kill him as you would kill a beast. No; it is not nice."

Better to be shot than left to the Belsheviks on the battlefields of those days. Because the Bolsheviks were apt to cut out the tongue or eyes of a

to cut out the boigue or eyes of a 'woturded/man, saying that the cursed bourgeois spy could now neither 'see nor talk. There were other things as bad.

"They would bury a man all ,but his head and shoulders, anil looking at his uniform to see Iis' ank would see that he was perihaps a captain, cear ing perhaps three stars on lhis shoul ders. So, in his naked shoulders, they 'would drive three nails to be his stars, and leave him there. It was not good. Civil war is most disagreeable."'

Thus they kept on losing battle after battle, and thIe Bolsheviks grew stronger and strongear. 1e was at Odeessa whlen asn allied force of Russians, .t'rench, and Greeks vainly tried to hold it, wiith the assistance of big British wirshbips shell lng the Bolsheviks from the Black Sea. The French soldiers were crtunpled, and 00)0 .of them deserted to the Bolshevik ehost.

"The English ships 'were very use ful, helping while the women and ehil. dren, escaped. There is nothling better in Burope tihan the British Tonmmies, but we had none of them. The Utreeks were very brave, very good lighters oh, very good fighters. One regimenit and a half of Groeeks beat a whole dlvi. sion of Bolsheviks at Odessa, But it was no good."

After Odessa he came to tilhe British force in the Caucasus, and was employed as intelligence officer. lie went twice to Petrograd, which was 'not so dilh cult if you could talk like a peasant, and let yourself be very dirty." On onel of these excursions he was arrested, but agail was let go. '"I 'as not so fright eued as whlen I was in prison the lirst time." he says. And hlie had aample op portuiity to see at closer quarters than ever before '5Lhe three great nations or the Caucasus." Needless to say, he uses tdhe adjective satirically.

"The Tartass, the Georgians, and the Armenians-I do not know which is the worst. At I think I do is the worst. At least, I think I do know. It is the Armenians. They are thieves, cowards, liars, and traitors. Many of the Armenians have not yet been massacred by the Turks—unfortunately."

The tragedies of war in Russia have left this young man with many tragic perplexities, as will be seen; but they have left him also with some ruthless judgments, the Armenians not escaping one of them. "In the Caucasus," he says, with a grim jest on a word grown banal, "these great peoples are following out the principles of self-extermination."

A problem began to vex the depths of his mind, terribly weary of fighting against his own people, of killing his own comrades for their salvation from mutilation and torture. He hated the prevailing Bolshevik administration as something hideous which had been unposed on Russia, and thought that it must be fought and beaten; yet he saw in the democracy of Bolshevism something better than its lunacies and excessies, and believed the Russians, his own folk, to be superior to the Germans and Jews and anarchists who had got hold of them.

"It is an unhappy man who can look at both sides at once. I am a

most unhappy man. I am fed up of fighting, and all the world is fed up of fighting. The Bolshevik Government is bad, bad, and must be beaten. Bu the revolution will not be beaten, nor the Russian prople. In all the course of history a great revolution has never been reversed. That is the law of history; I know it I see so much good in Russian B Isheviks and to much good in the suit Bolsheviks.

"I keep on fighting yet I think it would be best to make peace with the Bolsheviks, and le: Russia settle teem inside. I think that to fight Russia from outside is to pour oil on the fire. I may be wrong. I am unhappy and peace of the fire.

the arc. I may be wrong. I am unhappy and perplexed. I have no tamity left alive, I have no money, I have no home, I have no country. I have only my doubts."

When this state of mind began, he asked and was given permission to leave the Caucasus. He went southward in the hope of coming to the East and gaining some employment, and he reached Persia with a companion, ite was duly held up by a British patrof. To the question "Who are you?" he answered wearily. "I am a retired German spy," so accustomed was he to being told that that was his role. A puzzled officer sent him to headquarters, where he was persuaded that he should continue the fight against Germany. He was given rank and command, and ma little time was joined with the futile expedition to Baku. But first, he had his experience of the little war with the "Persian Democrats."

A Persian Prince came to the conclusion that his country was too much upside-down on account of the war, and that the presence of the foreigners was chiefly to blame. So he declared a Persian Republic, whose first function should be to cut the throats of every foreigner who could be caught. Our Russian found himself joined with a force of 12 men in a Persian city, surrounded by 2000 of the new democracy of Persia. There was a little fighting, in which eight men were lost, and they sent a wireless for reinforcements. Twelve men came! They got into the city, heaven knows how. A fresh appeal was sent. It brought two aeroplanes.

All the Persian Democrate ran away, and said that Allah was sending down thunderbolts upon them."

Afterwards came Baku, whither was sent a British force of 1500 and a Russian "army" of 200. "The Russians were more like a band of robbers, but they were good tighters." Before going to

were good tighters." Before going to Baku, the British commander addressed the Armenians who lay between him and the Turks, explaining how their duty and their interest obliged them to prevent the Turks from coming through. The Armenians cordially agreed.

"It was very foolism. Any of us Russians could have told him that there is only one way to make the Armemans to fight. You must set them in face of the enemy and then come behind them with machine guns to drive them on."

Therefore, as soon as the Turks appeared all the Armenians ran. If the Turks had been better generalled they might have made it werse for the occupying "army" in Baku, but the temporary occupants managed to get away. To celebrate their capture of the town the Turks massacred thirty thousand Armenians.

Flighting in the Caucasus contined for a little time after the armistice, and the Russian was there. The trouble was a Turkish commander who did not see why he should give up his local conquests; he said he intended to march on to Moscow. He being quietened, the Russian went once more to Baku, where there was a sort of struggle with the Bolsheviks. A "naval war" was fought on the Caspian Sea, the Bolshevik base being at Astrakan. The last tight in which he took part was on May 24.

"There are 60,000 Bolsheviks in Baku. They say that they get no wages, and Bolshevik workmen are paid; but if peace were made with the Bolsheviks they could send oil to Russia, and get higher wages and cheaper food."

At last the Russian left the Caucasus and Persia, and began his journey to Vladivostock and Omsk, to report to Admiral Koltchak. 'And also to say what I think about Peace! and when I say it I shall not be entwised if I am

say it I shall not be surprised if I am hanged."

A proper Russian, he has the deepest nostifity to the Jews, attributing to them the worst of his country's troubles. The revolution was "made in Germany," chiefly by the Jews, "and money is their weapon." In the existing Russian Government every member except Lenin is a Jew. In the Russian Foreign Department 152 of 157 officers are Jewish.

"The Russians, the proper Russians, are asking questions about it. They are saying, 'What are we? Are we Russia, or are we Palestine?'"

Within the past year he has seen Bolshevik regiments; and he went one into Bolshevik lines to discuss the question of an armistice.

"Organisation was good, and it was good discipline. Officers were allowed to carry a baton, and though they had no epaulettes, they had signs of rank on the breasts of their tunic. They had executive command, but were watched over by two commissairies," who saw that they did not betray their soldiers.

"The infantry had regular uniforms, their rifles were clean, and the machine guns and rifles were in good order. It was a good discipline."

As the whole world knows, Koltchak has just had a set-back. When about last March it was confidently announced that he would march to Moscow, Trotsky issued a proclamation: "Comrades! Koltchak will never see the walls of (Moscow! He will not see the banks of the Volga. I. Trotsky, promise this!"

"I was astonished," says our Russian officer, "that in ten days a Bolshevik army was, moved from the south to meet Koltchak's advance; it was carried more than twice the distance from the east to the west front of Ger-

the east to the west front of Germany. That shows that their railway organisation is good."

Everybody in the world probably appreciates by now that there is conscription in Russia—conscription of a sort to make democracy tremble. All the populace is ordered to join the Red, Army, though from 80 to 90 per cent. of the "proper Russians" have no love left for the tyranny which governs them. Maybe half the possible conscripts evade coming to the colours. According to cables in Asia, dated London, July 15, Lenin has ordered the death penalty on all who

do not rejoin within seven days, and has punished whole villages and towns with fines and compulsory labour. And when they do go into battle!—hear the Russian officer once more:—

"The proper Rassians, who are conscripts, but have no wish to fight for Lenin and Trotsky, are put in the front, and behind them there are Chinese soldiers with machine guns. Chinese and Letts. You will find that most of the real Bolshevik army is Lett or Chinese. They are well paid."

Many of the factories in Russia, long closed, are working satisfactorily, but food remains a problem. Each peasant farmer is allowed to retain only 400lb of wheat per annum; and disliking work, he grows only that amount. But the conquest of the Ukraine put fresh stores, especially of wheat and sugar, in the hands of the Bolsheviks.

So our Russian, doubting and fighting still, goes to put his sword again at the disposal of a commander. It is all he

I left my father in Petrograd, but i suppose he is dead. He was 70 years old, and had no money, and to live in Petrograd costs 500 roubles a day. It was not pleasant for an old man, I suppose my brother is dead also, He went to fight on the Salonica.

H1o wenit to fight on the Salonica front, and 'ave not'heard of hisn." iIHe has a British captain's uniform, a spare shirt, and a spare pair of "shorts," with .£4 iin his 'pocket-"and if I go to a Itussia?il Consul to eeal money it is dangerous; lie always asks me firstl" l.e thinks that IRussia may settle her own affairs, by getting rid of Jewish controllers.

In what time? "Pc'haps in thirty years."

ilHe is liussia ciersonilled, a tragedy of loubt and fears. Unlike ia professional Itussian soldier I met in Tokyo, an 'at tachoe for iRoltehak, content with his work, serenely confident iii swift .victory for his party. lHe gave me his jtele lhono number in Petrograd, "in case you :hould go there next Decembnler!" Unlike aotiher rlessiiau ihiJalpan, who in Mols cow ,was almhnost poor, Land now lives like a millionaire. The othes say that Inc is trading inl stolen diamonds. This one is a patriot, sick to the very bottom of Iris hleart, but stumsbling on and oil in a dubious course of duty.

'iSounetines I tUhink it wvould bh happier to take a.iBolshevik knife be tween your teeth, and go out and kill anybody, everybody. It is so unhappy to see good -in both sides, and not tnow what will be best! :But I think !hlsiuna wil nover be \\pubdusd unless from outs'ide herself, and the Bolshe vism, whlibhi is the Revolution, will never be defeated."

# BOLSHEVIK OUTRAGES APPALLING CONDITIONS.

## LENIN SHOT AT

LONDON, March 13.

The latest official news from Russia is to the effect that revolts, extraordinary demoralisation, and appalling outrages are general. The British consul at Ekaterin-burg, as the result of a special enquiry in the Perm district, reports that the number of Polshevik victims there amounts to several thousand, most of whom were shot. Tortures usually preceded the murders. A girl aged 19 years, who was accused of espionage, was slowly pierced with a bayonet thirteen times in the same wound and is still alive. In other cases the victims were wounded with a bayonet fifteen and twenty times. Forty-six priests out of 300 in the Perm district have been killed. Sixty-six children, who had been taken as hostages, were mowed down with machine-guns. In some cases the Bolsheviks took a ransom from relatives after their victims had been secrecly killed

M Ducherse, formerly French Consul at Petrograd, who has revisited Russia, reports that the military and civil power of the Bolsheviks is declining owing to their supplies for feeding their followers having become exhausted. Their paper money is valueless. Frequent desertions of the peasant troops are demoralising the army, and there is constant dissens on between the Soviets of Petrograd and Moscow and those of the provinces. The peasants refuse to bring stocks of food into the towns

sia, or what the outcome will be except that it will be extremely menacing to the world's peace. Nobody knows what the future of the Central States will be or the burden that will be east upon us by their dissolution. We are largely exhausted, and only by courage, energy, discipline, and unity will the Empire surmount its difficulties

The "Daily Express" Berlin correspondent says:—General Hoffman (Hindenbury's Chief of Staff), interviewed yesterday, said unless Russian Bolshevism were crushed the Entente's triumph would be sterile. Bolshevism must be crushed by force, which will require a large Entente army marching shoulder to shoulder with the German army. This must be done soon, otherwise the next war will be between the Entente Powers and the Bolsheviks for the rescue of European civilisation.

#### A LETTISH SUCCESS.

The Lettish troops have captured Tuckum, and the Bolsheviks are retreating. The Letts have reached Middle Courland.

## MURDER AND DISORDER

A PESSIMISTIC REVIEW.

## MASSACRE OF CHRISTIANS FEARED.

IONDON, April 17.
The representative of the Australian Press Association learns that though the situation in Egypt is outwardly quiet, further disorders are feared, and that the 26th Division from Dobrudja has been sent to reinforce General Allenby. This will enable him to recommence the demonstration of the troops, particularly of the Australians and New Zealanders who volunteered to stay when English women and children were endangered a month ago. The Australians and New Zealanders behaved with splendid public spirit, realising the necessity of their detention

The insurrection at the Tura gaol on April 12 resulted in 500 convicts breaking loose. The black warders fired, killing 12

The position is easier in Germany. The peasants and the troops have overthrown the Soviet Gevernment in Bavaria. The arrival of food has also improved the situation, in Austria particularly. White bread has arrived in Vienna, the first for four years. The main need of Austria is coal. Many Magvar troops are deserting to the French, and offer to assist them if they advance to Budapest in order to overthrow the Soviet Government, but the Magyars will oppose the Roumanian advance. The situation of the Bolshevik Government is most precarious, though Samuels, a Jew from Moscow has arrived in Hungary with

from Moscow, has arrived in Hungary with a large party of trained Bolshevik agitators, who have been distributed in the vil-

Intense feeling exists in Poland owing to the Entente's decision not to insist on landing General Haller's corps at Danzig. That had an unfavorable result on the prestige of M. Paderewski's Government, and it is hoped this will be dissipated by the agrival of the first contingent of General Haller's army, which has commenced

the march through Germany.

Admiral Webb, who is at Constantinople, reports disorder throughout the interior of Turkey. The Greeks and Turks are ready to spring at each others' throats. Bands of brigands are dominating the country, even within a few miles of Constantinople, committing atrocious murders and cutting off travellers' cars. The Committee of Union and Progress, which is secretly reorganising, has been assisted by the events at Odesta and Egypt

The latest reports indicate that Bolshevism is losing ground and that Lenin and Trotsky are endeavoring to come to an understanding with the moderate elements. The situation at Petrograd is deplocable. A total of 123,000 deaths occurred in January and 83,000 in February. The entire population in the Petrograd district is anti-Bolshevik. The loss of the Crimea was due to the Bolshevik forces wading through lagoons with machine guiss and getting to the rear of the volunteers defending the inthmuses. The food situation may necessitate the evacuation of the fortress of Sebastonol.

Many portions of the interior of Turkey are ignorant of the Entente victories, and the only way of impressing them will be by force, which, however, is impossible. The situation is extremely precarious, and it is believed will become more acute when Turkey learns of the Peace Conference's decisions, which are bound to be adverse to Turkey. It is feared that a massacre

of Christians will occur on a large scale.

GOVERNMENT EMPLOYES STRIKE.

OAIRO, April 20.

Further complications have arisen owing to the strike of Government employes, including the acavangers. This is causing dangerous accumulations of filth, from which an epidemic is feared.

## What Bolshevism ,Means

#### QU ENSJ-ANDE - WRITES: 1.I)1J RUSSIA.

HIow the failure. of Bolshevik schemes in Russia reminded hint of the equally unsuccessful schenles of Queensland socialists' is 'set. out in extracts from a letter written by: Michael Zadorosky,'a -former Queensland resident, from Chita (Siberia), on September 23, and. lately received by Mr. James ll. Fitzpatric', of J. 11. Rouvrafv" and Co., MIiles, Queensland. The letter was made availahble for the press by the Minis ter for Defence .(Senator Pearce)

"At last the Socialists -of extremie type have been driven into the ranges of Siberia, .and I am in,a position to write abroad. We have been cut off froin the world for about six 'months, and before that the postal -officials were too busy discussing their. class positions and insuring to-themselves the right to do nothing and get big. wages, so they could not undertake to deliver any letters with any sort of a guarantee. Thlier was no chance to get away from Russia, because pass ports were strictly examined, and any one suspected of belonging to the class not strictly proletarian was debarred from leaving, -and had to live oi die as best he could--that is, if he was not butchered by the bloodthirsty lovers of liberty and. brotherhood. In common with other landowners, I had to part m ith .stock, lands, and iwoods, robbed not by, aggressive foreign ene

mies, but by my own neighbors, whb, in.their ignoranco sand sa ageness, were instigated by uiscruupulous 'benefactors oilthe human race.'

'".3Ie iolshevists are gone, but the results their reign have- left are tre mendous. Everything. is destroyed fact ores, workshops, railway lines, rolling stock. Ihowever noor Russia was under the tCar; it will take years 'be?oro she is restored to the possession of what she had then.

"The Socialists, jist'like thoe T borites in ;'ncensland, meaning to harm and put downl meat kings, wool kings, anl other kings, and benefit the 'have nots,;' have dealt the 'lhave-nots' such a blow as never canitalists could have dealt and fromn which the worker is not li'-elh- to recover. Poor ignorant, sa-vae Russian mouiik ; lie cannot go along by hihnself ; he has to be led.

"I know hundreds of mcricau Jews who came to Russia mas anarchists and Socialists, and were pro-Germans to the,bone. They w\\ere quite.willing to help Germany all they could. They did help her temporarily, but ultimately both the lOusiean and the German pro letariat rill suffer for tlheip socialistic expcriments. Ini-Queenssland, too, we had occasion to see how the Labor ites lioatedd the "\\orker on the head every time they- wanted .to help him.

"The Bolshevists have gone over imost of Russia, but ordinary Social ists renunin, and still mean to' con tinue some of their experiments, which mean the thwarting of private enter pirise and personal industry .and thrift. Who is going to work and slave fromn sun to sun to lay in stores of wheat and build up herds of stoc'k, when one is put down e;'ery time for being an. own?er? i- a mni is not deprived of common rights, and not. proclaimed an outlaw for possessing more head of cattle than his neighbor, still he lives under the threat of being deprived' of hisIproperty by; the lovers of equality."

Mr. J. Su'llivan,.who was an ac tive Labor mani up till the big split in the party a couple of years ago, writes s follows in his paper, the Cowra" Guardian :--A ago it .was thoudlt the One Big, 'Union move irant was dying or dead. To-day it is a viierous, venomous growth. Let not in the country; b1 misled. ;ihe One Big Union gives as its creed re volhtionary -ocialism--take what you nint, not only without askisng, but also ithout -payment. It, is only it degree removed from syndicalism-the doctrine of e all and give to none. Cowra electors may laugh, but how; mwill the business, folk oft this town, aiid the farmers of the district, accept a peremptor: demand some morning to hand over their business or farm, with out compensation, "to the people." If it really was to the people thed owners might i?ot growl very much, liut when it means, goiving a life's work .to a pac' of Imatsites nwho isifest the cities and gull the workers to increase their ommn imn' ing accounts, well then the blood rises: It is the coming battle of Australia-Bolshelikism Liberty. It cannot be shirked, ior can it -be side-steptied.

## / THE BOLSHEVIK MENACE.

Westralians who have recently re turned from visits to the Eastern States declare that Bolshevism is mak ing strides in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, and they express the opin ion that unless the authorities', deal with the leading agitators promptly ? and firmly there will be a sorry day of reckoning, not only in the Eastern States, but in all Australia the plague of Bolshevism, like influenza, may be expected to spread over the continent unless it be isolated and quarantined at its headquarters. These citizens of

crars may by some be looked upon as alarmists\* or as people who, used to the law and order and the patriotism of the 'West, are easily affrighted by the blatancy of the revolutionaries of the Eastern States. Unfortunately their alarm is only too solidly justi fied. There axe others, trained observ ers of the Eastern press, who hoid ?STTmiftr views and are expressing them with candor, at this time. The Syd ney correspondent of the 'Australasian?\* Is one of these, in a recent issue he w^rote: —

It. the manifestations of Bolshevik activity that have broken out in Sydney and Newcastle stood alone, as. something apart from the ordin ary current of .our national life, they

would give cause for comparatively little general anxiety. An open con fession by a section of citizens, of as sociation and sympathy with Bolshe vism might excite some such appre hension as would be felt over the sudden escape from custody of a number of criminal lunatics, or the sudden appearance of a pack of wolves in ;a rural village. The safety of the State itself v ould be in no way endangered. But with the evil thing that has now ? arisen . the real danger is that it is grafted on to and ? becomes a vital part of a system of party politics, deve loped to intense rigidity under the influence of a relentless and unrea soning class war. Like those para sitic growths that may be seen en twined round the trunks of forest timber trees, in our coastal districts\* ultimately destroying the parent growth, and taking its place, Bolshe4 vism in New South 'Wales, develop ing , through various stages of de structiyeness, has fastened on to the Labor movement, perverting its legi timate aiTTin as a political force, do minating its councils, usurping the powers of its leaders, and corrupting the minds of those not in the habit , of thinking for themselves. Therein lies the danger of this latest and fiercest form.- of anarchy. It may be .quite true that revolutions are .vio lent in proportion to the severity of

the evils that produce them. But the principle has limitations, deter minable by temperament and by ra cial characteristics.

The Sydney correspondent is amazed, as are we all, that Australians, with all their liberty and selfdetermina tion, should have any time for Bolshe are seemingly indispensable to its de velopment.

Peace-loving, law-abiding, loyal Australians may not at first sight un derstand how it is that a doctrine which elsewhere has produced ghastly horrors and a reign of terror, exceed ing the worst excesses of the French Revolution, should find exponents and adherents in a land like our own. where the sole governing power is in the hands of the people themselves, under one of the freest constitutions in the world. . More strange still is it that those who spread 'doctrines ab horrent to all human instincts should be able openly to proclaim their awful gospel free from interference, and ac tually sheltered and tacitly encourag ed by representative industrial or ganisations! ' The explanation is to be found in the relentlessness of the class war that has done so much of late to retard progress; also in party an tagonisms' the direct product of that class war. Thus there is now before the world the spectacle- of the Sydney Labor Council, ? a ? .to

Labor Council, ? a body ? supposed .to be representative of the higher intelli gence in Labor circles, openly.. favoring Bolshevism. It gives1 the- '.better class of unionist wage-earners some thing to think of to find. that the same revolutionary spirits ? who are . at -? the head of the terror-inspiring Bolshevik creed are identified with the One. Big Union movement. Bolshevism, in deed, as manifested here, appears, to have absorbed all : those revolutionary sections in the community heretofore going by various names, and standing for enmity to all social order, aall peaceful pursuits, even hostile to Christianity. Wherein it is truly Rus sian in character and purposes, if not in degree of fanaticism.

Having stated the case, the corre spondent- turns to consider the most effective way of meeting the menace.' Here he Ris altogether lacking in the punch ttiat is required to knock out a terFor so formidable as the growing Bolshevism. He says:— 'Something is required some movement distinctly representative of public sentiment in .; its widest sense. It is thought that '

nothing sh,qrt of a series 'of meetings under the 'auspices of all .municipal corporations and shire .councils throughout the State would adequately meet a situation which, if allowed to remain withoutjproper protest, would

assuredly not become less menacing or die of inanition." It sounds like playing with the danger. What is wanted is a direct mandate from Parliament that this O.B.U. shall be stopped as illegal, and that every movement making for the spread of Bolshevism shall be crushed by the weight of the law administered by a fearless Government who, where the interests of the people are endangered, shall be relentless. Nothing short of this will satisfy a people who are tired of troubles fomented by agitators who are Huns in propaganda and in spirit whatever they may be in nationality.

City Lodge I.O.G.T. gave a welcome home to Bros. Pte. G. A. Jamieson and Pte. Bert Haynes at the Temperance Hall, Museum-street, on Saturday last. The hall was crowded with members and visitors. Bros. J. Chesters, W. J. Brown, H. Hitchcock, J. Meldrum, A. Leonard, W. Betts, and Sis. A. March made speeches of welcome to the returned brothers. Bro. G. A. Jamieson said he was glad to get back to the order and W.A. He had had a rough time of it, as well as being wounded, but the result was worth it. He was proud to say that Bro. Haynes and himself had gone through the hardships of the trenches, hospitals.

hospitals, and convalescent camps without the aid of alcohol, and he believed it would have been better for the boys if they had kept away from strong drink. Sisters A. Hills, E. Crowley, E. Thompson and E. Sandwell were responsible for the refreshments. A new lodge of the I.O.G.T. was instituted in the Presbyterian Church, West Subiaco, on Monday, by Bro. John Chesters, Acting-Grand Chief Templar, assisted by G.S. W. J. Brown and other members of the order. The name of the new lodge is "Wattle Blossom Lodge," and there are 22 members on the roll, Bro. J. D. Meldrum, the organiser, was elected its first Chief Templar. Sister Meldrum was responsible for refreshments.

Neighborly Amenities.—There was never much love lost between Melbourne and Sydney, and the following paragraph, which is from the "Age," shows that federation has not changed the feeling much:—"The reported precipitate adoption by Sydney of the S.O.S. house card system and street patrols, which savor so pronouncedly of precautionary measures bordering on panic, was the cause of mingled amusement and concern yesterday in quarters where the very real and dangerous 'power of suggestion' in relation to epidemics of disease is appreciated. According to yesterday's

Mount Panorama Ratepayers' Association.—The monthly meeting of the association was held in the Public Hall on Wednesday February 5

lic Hall on Wednesday, February 5, ? President Michell in the chair. Cor respondence and various reports were dealt with. Messrs. Michell and Lance were appointed delegates to attend the

next road board meeting. Complaints were made that £he public telephone was being operated without payment It was decided to send a strong letter of protest to the Deputy Postmaster General apprising him of the facts. A lecture on 'Banking Development and Law' was delivered by Mr. Vincent J. Matthews, headmaster of Stott's Busi ness College. Mr. Matthews was ac corded a hearty vote of thanks.

Twopence Conscience Moneyv— As illustrative of the manner in which the Government and public- telephone guarantors can be defrauded, it was pointed out at the last meeting of the ML Panorama Ratepayers' Associa tion that the public telephone, for which three members of the associa tion act as guarantors, was being used without payment. An amount of 2d., representing conscience money, was received by. the association, represent ing the price of a call for a conversa tion carried on by a local resident. A number of similar, cases were cited, establishing beyond doubt that it was

a regular practice. It will come as a surprise to the public to know that they may indulge in public telephone conversation at the expense of the Postmaster-GeneraL Members were unanimous in their opinion that the department should take immediate steps to protect its own interests and those of the telephone guarantors.

Sunday. Pleasure Trip\*— The Skipper Bailey Motor Co. announce their in tention of continuing their chara banc special trips around all the prin cipal seaside arid river drives; a' trip which is 'much appreciated by all who have availed themselves of the op-, ?p'ortunity of visiting all these delight ful spots in one afternoon.

St. Patrick's Day in Melbourne. — Subject to certain conditions being complied with, Melbourne City Coun cil has granted permission for a street procession to be .held on St Patrick's Day. At the head of the procession two average-size flags the Union Jack and the Australian . flag, measuring about 6ft'. by 3ft/ each, must be car ried k unfurled. No banners, banner ets, 'flags', signs, streamers, tableaux or emblems .relating to Sinn Fein pv republican principles' will be permitted. 'God Save, the King' must De played when 'the .procession moves off from S;t Patrick's Hall and -when it reaches the entrance gates to^ the Exhibition. The route specified is from St. Pat

rick's. Hall, . ..in Bourke-strcet, and thence via .William-street . or Queen street, Latrobe-street, and Evelyn street, to the Exhibition. Permission to use Bourke-street, except at the' starting point, is refused.

'Fremantle Nava! Comforts Fund.— A special meeting of members of this fund will foe -held in the Cabin; Tea Rooms, Fremantle, \\ on Monday even ing,. at 8 o'clock, to make arrangements for the' naval ratings after 4% years' service. ?-- The following? naval ratings are returning from active service, and are\* expected to arrive at Fremantle on Tuesday , next: — Sydney Hoare, - A.B.. B. Laughton and Robert .Mathews, E-.R.A.'s; Jack Wells, stoker, P.O.; John Brown, CharlesfDuckling, Thomas Gra ham,. {William Bald, .William\* Bear/ and Frederick ? Reeves, stokers. , They all belong to Western Australia, and. will, together with 84 naval U'atin.^s en route to the Eastern States, be entertained by- the members. of the Fremantle Na

val Comfort' and Welcome Fund. Pre parations are being hurriedly made for their entertainment, and^ it has been suggested that a. motor tour through Perth and -King's Park, with a stop page for lunch in Perth, -would be ap propriate. All motor car owners wishing to obtain , particulars, or lend their cars for. the lads' enjoyment should applj- either to Captain O. Bur ford (Naval Office, Fremantle). 'or .Mr. F..C- Somes, president pf7£he, Freman tle Naval. Comfort' aud^Welcome Fund. Preparations are, also -being\* made to hold an entertainment in the evening. ,

Good Tools, Good Work. — Whether the reader, is a carpenter, an engineer, farmer, or gardener, ? the fact that he -can obtain absolutely reliable tools at - John ' Churdh arid Co;, wholesale; and retail ironmongers, Fremantle, will in terest him. - Church's do 'not- keep 'brummy,' or 'Made in Hun -land' go6ds, but' absolutely reliable tools 'by leading English and American makers, all guaranteed and 'equivalent to 'jew. elled in- every movement.' These are of the latest patterns, of the most re liable makes, ' and excellent value. 'for; the money. To those who can see be fore they buy, Church's invite, close hir spe'etion. Postal- and 'phone , orders will have immediate attention of, their expert mail- order department

Johnston Memorial ?Church.-^unday school anniversany services; will be held at Johnston Memorial, Fremantle, to» morrow. There will be three services, morning at 11, afternoon at 3, and evening af,7.30; The Rev. Alfred Gif ford, of North Adelaide, will' conduct both morning and afternoon- services, and the. Rev. W. L. Williams the even ing service. At all services the S.S. choir will render appropriate 'music. On Monday, February 17, & tea and public meeting will ? be 'held, when

prizes will be distributed.

High-grade , Tailoring.— When this innovation was brought forward by Messrs. Fisher Beard and Co., Fre mantle, it proved an -instantaneous success. The, staff has already beeu doubled in this department, and orders are flowing in freely. .? The firm has just received, greatly augmented stocks of serges, tweeds, etc., and now stands second to none in this regard. ,k Al ready a 'Fisher Beard' made suit can bo identified in Fremantle by its smart appearance and excellent finish.

Breaches of the Electoral Act.— For non- compliance7 with the ^requirements of; the Commonwealth Electoral Act, some 41 people were fined small amounts, and ordered to pay costs, at the City Police Court this morning.

River Excursions.— The s.s. Pyth will leave the Barrack-street jetty to morrow 'at .10.30 a,m. for Point Wal ter, and at 3 p.m..for Rocky Bay, call ing at Point Walter both ways.

## Bolshevism.

### Hungarian Revolt.

### Ailied Armies Moving.

London, April 2.—Sir Samuel Hoare, M.P., states that there is a strong suspision at West-minster that some Germans are acting in concert with the Bolshevists with a view to creating chaos everywhere and so justifying a refusal by Germany to sign the Peace Treaty.

Reports received in Paris from Hungary indicate that Bolshevism there has been artificially created for the purpose of securing easier terms from the Allies. German influence

suspected.

London, April 2.—The Daily Chronicle says the latest information is that the anti-Bolshevist forces in Russia, under Petlura. were reinforced and have turned the flank of the Bolshevist army, thus defeating the move against Roumania.

It is reported from Geneva that several officers and men on three British monitors at Budapest.

were killed by Hungarian gunfire.

A message from Bucharest says it is reported that Entente forces have landed in Constanza the Black Sea port of Roumania), en route to

It is reported from Budapest that the Hungarian Soviet made an offer to Germany to form an alliance against the Entente. It is rumoured that Lenin has made a similar offer to the

German Government.

The People's Commissary in Budapest is organising a Red Guard, consisting of 30,000 dependable volunteers, for the purpose of maintaining order. Commanders of towns will be elected.

Geneva, March 30.—Prince Windischgratz, a former Hungarian Food Minister, said in an interview that the following of Count Karolyi, ex-Premier of Hungary, is comprised mostly to nobles who had been ruined by gambling. Karolyi made many concessions to the Communists until the latter finally overthrew his Government. The present Bolshevist Government, said the prince, only represents Budapest, and as mostly Jews, but it is a more logical arrangement than Karolyi's phantom rule. Two thousand British and French, he said, would be sufficient to restore order in Hungary; but the situation may be very different six months later.

## The Russians,.

## Bolsheviks Progressing;

(Published in."The Times.") PETROGLRAD,, Friday.

Tile rapid spread of civil war in all parts of Russia reveals the steady progress of Bolshev ism. There are. signs o f disintegration every where. Fighting and disorders are pending in Siberia, where a struggle for the restoration of law and order is expected; but the Siberlan Soviets are siding with Lenin's Government. Large bodies of Bolshovik troops have been sent to stren?g?then the Soviet's hands.

The Ukraino is gradually coming under Bol shovik influence. The Soviets have organised. The Rada is dissolved. A portion of the Uk raino troops and supporters of the Rada are put ting up a fight against the Bolshevik legions, which are progressing in all directions.

The dispute between the Petrograd Soviet and the Ukraine is chiefly on the question whether the latter shall help the Bolsheviks or Cossacks.

The Polish rising at ~lohileff is further com plicating the situation.

he RIoumanian news is conflicting. It is reo ported that the Bolshoeviks are attempting to ad vance on Jassy.

There is an enormous influx of liberated Aus tnro-erman Jews,,chiefly from Turkestan and Siberia. There are t0,000 in Petrograd alone. hungrily wandering the streets and struggling for a share of the scanty food. They are im bibing Bolshovik doctrines, but declare that 'f a German revolution is achieved it will not imitate the Russian chaos.

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