Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-12-15

all civilian German prisoners in ex- change for 4.0O0 Russian officers in German prisons, according to d dis patch to the Morning Post
 It is reported reliably, the dispatch adds. that Russian troops have been ordered to evacuate Finland. The commander of the Qualifications at Sveaborg is said to have acknowl- edged officially the independence of Finland
 'Petrograd, Dec. 14.-Civil offenders in the Petrograd prisons have been removed to jails in the provinces to make room for counter revolutionary suspects who are being arrested con- tinually.
 Countess Panin, former vice min ister of public welfare, has been ar rested. She is charged with having returned all the ministry funds to the state bank, leaving the safes in the ministry empty when the Bolsheviki took control.
 The lodgings of Mime. Kerensky, wife. of the former premier. were searched today by soldiers. She was told that she had better notify Ker- ensky to come to the Smolny Institute voluntarily or he would be in great danger of lynching if found.
 Members of the constitutional dem ocratic party now in prison will be tried by revolutionary tribunals. Bolsheviki leaders express the opin- ion that the probable penalty will be oI
 Food Employees Complain.
 The employees of the food supply department called today at the Smolny Institute, the Bolsheviki headquarters, and urged that they be declared a neu- tral department. Otherwise they would decline to work under the peoples commissaries. Their demands were refused. The senate, the highest Rus sian court, which has been abolished by the Bolsheviki, today held secret meeting, at which it was determined that the members would continue in their offices.
 Striking employees of the govern ment departments announce that they are ready to go to Kiev, if the con stituent assembly is dissolved and the railway union decides also to go to Kiev. The Socialist newspapers ap- peared this morning without adver- tisements. but they carried a long protest against the Bolsheviki adver- Using monopoly.
 The peoples commissaries continue to attempt to carry out their pro gram. It is announced that elections of officers of the army, for which all els x,-i1I or;, { decree abolishing all ranks and titles becomes effective tomorrow. The commissaries have declared all agri- cultural implements a government monopoly and all machines will be distributed for the equitable farming of all lands.
 The Bolsheviki are taking the ut most precautions to prevent rioting. Tn connection with the order to de- stroy all the liquor in Petrograd a general proclamation has been issued to the soldiers urging them to refrain from drinking.
 London. Dec 14.-Leon Trotzky, the Bolsheviki foreign minister, according to a Reuter- dispatch from PetrOgrad. announces that if an armistice fer the eastern front is signed at Brest- Litovsk. the Russian delegates are en- powered to enter into peace negotia- tions
 Amsterdam. Dec 14.-Official Ger man and Austrian statements say that the Russian delegates arrived at Brest-Litovsk Wednesday and the armistice negotiations were resumed yesterday
 The Austro-Hungarian war min- ister, General Stoeger- Steiner. is quoted by the Neue Freie Presse Of Vienna to the effct that the result of an armistice with Russia would de- pend upon the details of the agree ment.
 Discussing the question of disarma- r,ent. the general said he agreed with the recent statement of Count Czernin the foreign minister. that army and navy expenditures had reached q level it was almost impossible to maintain permanently. He said it was incorrect to assume that soldiers like himself were opposed to the prin- cipals of disarmament. Even to them the system of military states did not appear to be the idea order of things, but .disarpament would be possible only if gradual, universal and sim ultaneous.
 London, Dec. 14.-A generally in- creased confidence in Germany, based on the Russian armistice and other obvious factors. is shown in extracts from German newspapers telegraphed from Holland. Travellers arriving in Holland from Germany are quoted as saying that the German people are building hopes on a great offensive in the west, which is regarded as i'm pending.
 London, Dec. 14.-Bolsheviki troops occupied Tamanovka and Kaluga. ac- cordirg to Reuter- dispatch from Pet rograd
 Tamanovka was occupied by troops from Petrograd while Kaluga was captured without much fighting. The cOunter-reVOlutiONar troops there