The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-08-15

general ana Cnelr SCa11S, QeSLr and turned the affairs of the Swedish consul, at the same tin the country for himself and his French and Brihish citizens have been arrested and the bolsheviki have an nounced they would hold them as hos. tages because of the attack on the Soviet government by British and French troops at Archangel.
 Members of the French and British | military missions stationed in Moscow were refused permission to leave the country in spite of a previous promise of safe conduct.
 CHANGE POSSIBLE It is possible that since the sending Of MT. Pooiss telegrams which began July 29 and continued until August 6, the sit uation may have changed, because it is reported Lenine and Trotzky, the poI- shevik leaders, have fled and the Sovie. government in Moscow may have been overthrown. In that event MT. Pooa and the entente missions may find them selves Ill a better situation.
 But should the situation be unchanged, the American consul generals action n turning his office over. to Sweden win ! not affect the status of other American 1 consuls in Russia, as they have been
 working with the local governments 1 throughout Russia, where pro-ally feel l ing is strong.
 l The story is told in sequence in the state departments official announcement of its advices from MT. Poole. It fol-
 lows:
 POOLE'S REPORT
 1 The department of state has now sev-
 eral telegrams from Consul General Poole at Moscow concerning recent events in
 that city. Following Is summary ot l them:
 "one of the telegrams. similar in char
 acter to a previous message received through other channels, states that on i July 9, Lenine declared repeatedly be . l fore an official gathering of the Soviets
 that a. state of war existed between the l Russian republic and the allied powers.
 Because of this the diplomatic represen- l tatives in Moscow of Great Britain ana the consular representatives of France Italy and the United States visited the l commissarl. for foreign affairs and in | quired if Lenine's declaration should not
 be considered declaration of war, in- volving the rupture of de facto relations
 and tho departure of the consul Tchitch- l erin said if need not be so understood;
 that 1t was a state of defense rather than q state of war. and the government.
 desired to continue it's relations with the entente as 1t did with Germany under analogous circumstances
 The consuls demanded that to be &C., l ceptable, any explanation must be pub l licly male by the head of the govern ment himself. They also pointed out the | situation was inseparable from that Of the departure of the former military mls. sion. After having agreed to facilitate the departure of these persons in ac- cordance with international law. the gov
 ernment, they said, had raised absolutely inadmissible objection. The foreign rep lresentatives also stated they could not l see in this attitude anything but con l firmation of Lenine's declaration of the existence of state of war. Tchitcherin
 said he would give reply in three days. l REPLY IS RECEIVED
 "on the Mght of August ? reply was received. It stated inasmuch as Lcnines utterances were made behind
 
 agent of the allies could be present
 only owing to special courtesy on tlie part of the soviet government. public 1 explanation could not be given about nonpublic utterances. As to .he mem lbers of the military missions Thcitche- rin said negotionas had bcen begun {, with the German authorities to pro cure safe passage from Petrograd to l Stockholm for these officers. passage l i'm aai 1alf because British cruisers had already begun the bombardment of the islands covering Archangel
 "A third report from Consul General 1 Poole refers to the arrests of British and French citizens at Moscow, The afternoon of August , there was con ference between Tchitcherin and the consuls general of Japan, Sweden md 1 the United States with the following l results;
 ..First, the soviet government must give solemn assurances that allied per- sons having diplomatic or official char acter would not be fnolested; second Tchitcherin stated the allied military missions would not be allowed to de- part as had already been promised third, that civil persons arrested were hostages for the lives of thu soviet members in territory occupied by the | are civil prisoners arrested in accord lance with the practices of war. for in tcrnmcnt Hc adde'l that no respon- sibility could De assumed for their fu- ture safety because Great Britain and I France had attacked Archangel with out a declaration of war.
 SOVIETS WARNED
 MT. cole stated he was without knowledge of what had taken place in the north, but warned Tchitcherin that the peoples of the allied nations could not be intimidated and the initiation .I of a system of reprisals by the soviet I government could only result in indi- l vidual members of the government be- ing held personally responsible and in the loss by the bolsheyik cause of what ever respect 1t might now have in the minds of the civilized world.
 "A fourth message from MT. Poole dated August S. stated the authorities forcibly entered the oonsulates general of France and England on the !th and arrested the consuls generai and then Istaffs Next morning the consuls gen eral and part of then staffs were re- leased through the untiring good of lfices of the Swedish consul general. MT I Poole stated guard remained around 2 koth consulates and would not permit -s-n wA- --tV-