Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-11-07
RUSSIA: THE NEXT PROBLEM

N1HEN the BOlsheNik Government IN
w Russia sent request for peace
negotiations" to tho Allies this week It
had, of course, no hope or expectation that
tho expeditionary forces operating in ST.
IBERIA would be halted. The Red leaders
wero indulgng in shrewd method Of
propaganda. They were angling for the
sympathies and the attention Of sentlmcn-
tai radicals in Europe and in the United
States. The request from Moscow, how
ever, must serve to draw general attention
once again to fantastic complications OF
affairs in what was once the Cars empire.
There has been some ugly fighting be-
tween the Bolshevik troops and the Allied
forces in eastern Russia. The Govern
ments like our own which sincerely desire
70 befriend the Russian people, are thus
in the position Of making war upon the
troops which represent the only visible
government in Russia. There are the
couuterrevolutiouary governments at
Onsll and in the north but they are little
more than aspirations at the present hour.
Such civil organization as exists in the
country at large is controlled by the Boil
shevili, and often 1t appears that the SYM
are with the soviets that the Allies have
pledged themselves TO eliminate We are
not permitted to have actual and depend
able information OF all that is going on in
Russia. For months there has been no
Associated Press correspondent in the
country. Such news as passes the borders
is relayed through nestral countries, and
it is tainted too frequently by the ignor-
ance or the prejudices of those who trans
late and transmit 1t. The western world
cannot know whether the Allies are MAX
ing friends or foes Of the mass of Rus
slams. Only one thing is plain, and that is
that Russia is certain TO be in the near
future almost as eXacting a problem as
Germany used to be.
When peace is declared the world viii
become suddenly and actually conscious Of
the perils inherent in the Russian confu-
sion. Russia will present q long vista OF
tangled interests, OF great forces in violent
opposition, of great aims deflled and great
principles perverted and complicated by
passions, hatreds, ignorance and faith.
Those who have to make peace in Russia
will have to deal with raw chaos. The
land itself is equally inviting to those who
wish to benefit the human race by unselfsh
service and those opposed to them who
would resort to the old methods Of per-
fldious diplomacy to make the future Rus
sla a happy hunting ground for despoilers
and d breeding place for future strife.
The Allies have already performed q
great service for the Russians in the
elimination Of the menace Of the German
andsAustrian agencies of corruption Fin
land, which was ready to act as one Of tho
arteries for German "inflltration" in Rus
sia, and the Ukraine, which was bent upon
q similar service. are changing their minds
as swiftly as they made them up. But
Russia remains as an empire unrealized,
incidentally rich in all the natural re.
sources essential to wealth and civilization.
Russia has enough minerals and oils for
half a world. 1t is an untouched treasure
house Of unmined gold. If its fields were
titled it could feed Europe. 1t is a land to
tempt even ordinarily honest statesmen
from the ways Of justice and righteous
ness. And until the future course Of
events in Russia is decided the elimination
Of German autocracy will not be adequate
20 assure the world of permanent peace.