Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-01-18

the Kovno district had deserted be-
/, cause they were about to be moved to
the west front.
M. Radek, one of the Russian dele
| gates, asserted Monday that the Rus
slams were strengthening the front and
would send home every soldier who
was not willing to fight. He asserted
they wanted no help from the allies or
| America because their strength lay In
their weakness; that the country for
many miles was destitute, and that
| while the Germans could drive them
back it would do them no good and
they would not want to have millions
| of starving people on their hands. +.
Conditions in Petrograd are becOln-
ing more desperate daily. The city Is
| full of crime, disorder and dirt, and
the people have little food and coal.
Very severe winter weather is adding
to the distress there.
Breakup of Russia Continues.
The ~bolsheviki seem content, for the
present, to permit the breaking up of
| Russia into separate nationalities. A
kind of a truce has been patched up
with the Ukrainians, and the many
other new governments" apparently
are not molested. Lithuania is the
latest to declare itself Independent.
Finland Is well on the way to indepen-
dence, having been recognized by Gen
many, Sweden and France, and its rep
resentatives being well received by
other governments.
The Cossacks of the south were hav-
ing q harder time; official dispatches
from Petrograd reporting that they
had been defeated and put to flight by
the bolsheviki forces.
The Bulgarian parliament was in
formed by Premier Radoslavoff that a
peace compact had beer formed be-
tween Bulgaria and Russia, with the
consent of the other central powers.
On the other hand, the bolsheviki gov
eminent rejected the separate peace
proposals made by Turkey, asking the
latter to participate in the general con-
ference.
Col. William b.. Thompson, who com
manded the American Red Cross mis-
sion to Russia, has just returned to
this country and has much good to say
of the bolsheviki government. He is
convinced its leaders are honest and
sincere and not in the pay of the Ger
mans, and he believes the movement
they have set on foot nay result In a
world peace.
Fighting of the Week.
A number of attacks in force and
continuous activity of the artillery
marked the week along the west front,
but there was no great battle and no
serious attempt to break through the
lines by either side. The sector Sc
lected by the German high command
for the expected big offensive was not
revealed, but the belief grows that it
will be in Belgium and that the main
objective of the kaiser will be the cap
ture of Calais. Possession of this port
of course, would be of inestimable
value to Germany, both III the subma-
| rine campaign and in threatening Eng
land with direct attack, as well as in
terrupting the short route between
England and France.
In Italy the weather and possibly
shortage of ammunition brought al
most to a standstill the attempts of
the Austro-G Germans to break through
into the Venetian plains. Heavy SHOWS
fell in the Alps and threatened to shut
tino and the fighting line, and the
weather was stormy all the way from
the mountains to the Adriatic.
Vice Admiral Sims reported the tor
pedoing of the American steamship
Harry L~uckenbach, nine members of
the crew being missing. The British
admiralty announced that the hospital
ship Rewa was torpedoed and sunk in
the Bristol channel. She was full Of
wounded soldiers, but all of them were
safely landed, though three Lascars Of
the crew were lost. This new brutal
crime of the Germans afforded the
London Times opportunity for mild
criticism of President Wilson's high
idealism, the paper asking: us any
peace thinkable with the authors and
supporters of a system by which such
crimes are coldly sanctioned as legiti-
mate acts of WARP"
The Rewa was displaying all the
lights and markings required by The
Hague convention and was not within
the so-called barred zone. but such
facts no longer anything to the
Germans, if indeed they ever did.
Baker Defends Himself.
The investigation of war prepara-
tons by the senate committee reached
the stage on Thursday where the pres
nee of Secretary Baker was required.