New-York tribune., 1918-01-03
Bessarabian Town Taken,
SIav Officers Put
to Death
Trotzky Registers
A Vain Protest
Reply of Minister From
Bucharest Called Gun
satisfactory"

LONDON, Jan 2.---Thc Bolsheviki
authorities, according to an Exchange
Telegraph dispatch from Pctrograd,
have received information that the sit
uation on the Rumanian front is very
serious. The relations Of the Boil
to be becoming alarming.
1t is said the Rumanians have occu-
pied the Bcssarabian town of Locvo
and have arrested and shot several Bol,
shcviki leaders.
The semi official news agency ut
Petrograd has made public IL communi-
cation from Leon Trotzky, the Bolshc-
vik Foreign Minister, asserting that tho
Rumanian authorities ordered the Boil
shcviki committee visiting that country
arrested and tried. and declaring that
they would have been shot except for
intervention by the Cossacks.
The Rumanian Legation, in its reply,
which Trotzky considered unsatisfac-
tory, said the legation was without in
formation concerning the events at
Loevo, a town in Bessarabia, on the
Rumapian frontier, which the Ruman-
ians are said to have occupied. 1t add
ed that recently there had been con-
ficts between Russian troops on Ru-
manan territory, which Rumania deep
ly regretted Further, the reply said
entire Russian divisions, without await
ing methodical rehabilitation, were
pilaging and devastating and even
burning villages, occasioning armed col
lisiofis and endangering the lives Of the
Rumanlan population.
| Why Rumania Intervcned
The reply continues:
IN bo oc
troops themselves. who are threatened
with famine, and in the interest of the
Rumanlan population, who were threat
ened with desolation, the Rumanian
government was obliged to intervene in
order to avert vcritablc catastrophe
and to prevent the disorderly and hasty
rehabilitation.
While not making the foregoing a
matter Of protest, the legations reply
adds, the legation was obliged to say
that the suffering caused the Ruma-
man population by the Russian troops
was very great. and was only borne in
sliencc IN view Of the great interests
involved and because of the desire to
! preserve the friendship of the two al
/ lies. The reply. in conclusion, referred
to Rumanian obligations to furnish
grain for the Russian army from Ru-
mana's scant supplies, compelling Ru-
mania to obtain stores from the
Ukraine and the Caucasus
=" Cossacks Occupy Town
The statement says that Trotzky. in
a protest to the Rumanian Minister
has demanded the punishment Of those
responsible for the alleged outrage and
declared that the Workmen's and Sol
diers' Deputies would not shrink from
using the harshcst methods against
Rumanian counter-revolutonar CON
spirators, the accomplices of Genera
kaledine, Lieutenant General Stoher.
batchetf, commander of the Russian
forces in Rumania, and the Rada, an,
also would not respect the positions oc
cupied by the conspirators of the Ru.
manian hierarchy.
Cossack troops have occupied the
town of AleNandrovsk without opposi
tion and the Bolshcvik garrison was
disarmcd, according to reports received
here rom Petrograd regarding the civ
war in Russia. 1t is not stated which
Alexandrovsk was captured. ,Ther
are several towns and villages in nus
sia named Alexandrovsk, but the near
est to the Cossacll territory are thos,
in Ekaternoslav and in Stavropol.)