The Cordova daily times., 1918-08-08

Der and "a assorted domestic hides
from Port Levaslief, and 1873 sealskins
in 81 barrels: 607 foxskins and 953
sacks of ground bone taken aboard at
st. George island.
Senator Hitchcock of the senate
committee on foreign relations has re-
quested Henry w Elliott. for many
years connected with Alaska fisheries,
and student of Russian affairs. to-
furnish the committee a brief of his
opinion on the present situation I'M
Russia. Mr.. Elliott has done this and.
among other things. furnishes the fol
lowing information:
ION the oath OF May, 1917, lad
dressed letter to Hon. Newton ID.
Baker. secretary OF war. in which II
gave him my well-considered reasons
for telling him that the Russians were
out of the war. and that any attempt
on our part to get them to renew it
on Germany would only make bad
matter worse for ourselves. Chief
among the reasons which | briefed in
this letter was the dread the Rus
SLAMS had for any taX-gatherer who
might come upon them seeking the
payment of the s17.0O0,00O 900 war
debt incurred by Nicholas and his
ministers. which was charged against
them January l. 1917.
"All classes in Russia fairly gasped
at the size of that burden They saw
no possibility of the war ending at
any time in the immediate future, and
they gasped again at the prospect of
that seventeen billion-dollar indebt.
edness geometrically increasing to as
many more in another year or two OF
fruitless struggle. Constantinople,
which was the sole ideal of Russia |
when fighting had ceased to be worth
such an enormous expenditure of
NiN"ohitt itl aunt lHt illllllDHS VI
lives lost in the fighting
"A great, overwhelming impulse-a
teiepathtc agreement-sprang into
Russian minds soon afret that enor-
nous war debt became understood by
them. This feeling was emphasized
and strengthened by the fact that this
people knew too well what the impe-
rial tax gatherers had heretofore done
to them in this direction, when their
state debt had not reached one.tenth /
of this amount
we will stop the war as far as
Russia is concerned and we will re-
pudiate the debt that goes with it,
said the Russian mind early in Janu-
airy, 1917.
How can you do that when your
emperor has signed the bond with the
entente which keeps you in war until
France and England agree to quit?'
was asked
Owe can do 1t very we'll by depos-
ing Nicholas and his whole ministry
was the psychological argument. He
put us into this war without our
knowledge or consent. Then, when
we plunged in. he hattered us with
the hope that we should gain the Oar
danelles in short order He knows
now as we'll as do we that We will
never get the Dardanelles. Now, self |
preservation is the first law of ma
ture and of nations. We will be sim.
ply bled and taxed to death unless we
depose Nicholas and repudiate the
debt he has forced upon us
1T was with this communion Of
thought that the Russians easily
wrought the deposition of Nicholas.
They did 1t solely among themselves
and by themselves. not a hint of II
being dropped to anyone but them
selves until the car was put aside
forever. with the complete agreement
among s5 per cent of the Russians
that he be so removed.
But the moment they attempted to
take Russia out OF the war, that mo-
ment the diplomatic chicanery and Sc
duction Of Great Britain, France and
Italy was begun. to be soon after sup
plemented by everything the United
States could do. That attempt re-
suited in a costly and dismal failure.
Russia triumphed and withdrew from
the war. Having the peace pact of
Brest'Lltovsk openly. regularly and
unanimously approved by 1872 dele.
gates OF the All.Russian Congress of
Soviets at Moscow, they at once
turned to the reputation OF the state
debt. and saw to 1t that every legal
step was taken which seemed neces.