Evening star., 1918-01-11
nv 1or1s EDGAR BROWNE.

BY LOUIS EDGAR BROWNE.
C.blexram to The Evening Star ana
Chicago Daily News. Copyright 1915
,PETRoGRAD, Russia. January (de-
layed).-The bolsherfk leaders are oe
ginning to realize the improbaoiilty o.
socialistic Russia and autocratlc Ger
many effecting mutually satisfactory
compromise.
When the soviet leaders. full OF en-
thu.iasm and flushed with their hrst
succsss proposed = peace formula OF no
Enunexations, no sindemnities and the
fSfyAennitiota OF all peoples they ana
noS Understand why thinking democ-
racies failed to discern the propeliihe
hrofherhood Of man spirit. ihey
actually expected that a war-1aded
world would seize upon the bolshevik
platform as a deIiverance from the
nightmare of further bloodshed. hiui
culed by the allies. the oelsneVlAi
pinned their faith in the central pow
ers. hut now they suspect tnat Ger
MANY is not ripe for ultra democratic
fdea1s. and schemes to use the soviet as
too, for the purpose Of splitting the
allies. -
=. Fallacies Cloud Atmosphere.
Two great fallacies have clouded the
atmosphere Of the Russian political
sftuation. One is the unshakabie oeiiei
of the allied countries embassies that
the bolsheviki are German agents, and
the o@har fs the belief of the bolshevikf
thot the Germans need of peace Is so
ha forced TO accept Russtas democraic
terms. Both illusions seem to be about
to be dfspelled. In allied Jcircles IN
Petrosrad.it is felt that n. the ..sa ac.'ons ons
not German agents. but extreme social
lists, who. responding to nationwide
ca1l. are attempting to make peace. ana
simultaneously trying to end fmme-
czarisrn. though the whole national
fabric be wrecked in the process.
Allied Embassies Split.
Perhaps the bo1sheviki are fatuous
dreamers impractical theorists and
probable fanatics. but they are not Ger
man agents Every embassy in Petro-
rrad is now co-operating more or less
with the soviet government. the Amer
tcaf, embassy less. than any other rep
resantfng allied nationals. although
ruI1nor declares that Ambassador Fran
cia has requested Washington to recog-
nise the peoples commissaries or min
isters as Russia's de facto government. e'!,,e
nike the bolshevikf. Events are moving
too rapidly for any one to wait in de-
Gliding upon policy: The allied EN-
bassies here are split on the question
ton. .4
Ne%}on nARireS Peace
Russia expressed a nationwide de-
sire for peace. NJ. Kerensky failed to
heed the demand and. consequently. the
bring about immediate peace. Russia as
a whole does not care what sort of a
peace is created Russia demands
peace at any price. Yet the bolsheviki
democratic peace which is honorable to
Russia. The bolsheviki seem deter
mined not to surrender to the German
demands yet unless they they surrender sur Rds
sian patience is exhausted the country
will ask the bolsheviki, "where is the
nromised peace?" The bolshevfki will
explain that Russia, isolated or desert
powerful German autocracy to create
domocratic and honorable peace for
Russia, but the bolsheviki will be over
thrown and some new government will
A&8UlH6
heed the demands Of the country and
Will sign the FIRST peace which Germany
offers. thus eliminating allied influence
from one-sixth of the world.s land eur
face and 16o,ooo.0o0 people. and de-
stroying with one blind stroke the
great new democracy.
Germans Again Blunder.
The Germans at first agreed to the
Russian peace terms fully. This pro-
duced a tremendous impression in demo-
cratic Russia. giving the Germans the
moral ascendancy over the allies be-
cause the latter failed to declare them
selves resarding Russia.s democratic
terms. Then Germany, with her usual
lblunderinx methods. proceeded at one
stroke to destroy the previous good i'm.
pression. The kaiser's delegates sub
mitted supplemental terms which ex-
cludsd Poland and Courland from further
lpArtisipas1on. In the principle of self
fdstermlnat3Qn. alleging that these. ma.
lti6As had decided to JOIN the German
n