The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1918-02-20
RUSS FORCED
TO MAKE PEACE
With GERMANS
BoIsheviki Agree to Kaiser's
Terms When Enemy Starts
Big Drive.
LENINE. .TRgTSkY IN FLIGHT?
Teutons Occupy Dvinsk and Lutsk and
Continue Advance Into Russia
Foes Ask Indemnity of $4,-
0oo,00oOoO and Land.

London Feb. 20.-Russia is now
forced to sign peace upon the condi-
dOns proposed by Germany, says an
official Russian statement received
here.
The official statement was signed by
Premier Lenine and Leon Trotzky, the
foreign minister. 1t protests against
the German resumption of the war
and says the councils of peoples COM
mlssioners is now forced to declare
its readiness to sign a peace as dictat-
ed by the delegation Of the quadruple
alliance at Brest-Litovsk. 1t promises
to give detailed reply without delay
to the German peace conditions.
Russians Enter Protest
The statement was transmitted
through the wireless telegraphy sta
tions of the Russian government to the
government of the German empire at
Berlin. The text reads:
'The council of peoples commits
sarleS protests against the fact that
the German government has directed
ciIs republic, which has declared the
war at an end and which is demobil-
izing it's army an all fronts.
'"The wOrkmen's and peasants gov
ernment Of Russia could not anticipate
such a step because neither directly
nor indirectly has any one of the par
ties which concluded the armiStice
given the seven days notice required
in accordance with the treaty of De-
cember 10 for terminating it."
RuSSia'S decision to yield to Ger
many comes on the day after the re-
sumption of military operations by the
Germans resulting in the occupation
by them Of the Dvinsk and LutSk.
Whether it was the threat of German
military power or the chaotic dOmeS-
tic conditions which induced the boil
sheviki to accept the German terms is
not made clear by the advices thus far
received
Four Billion Indemnity Demand.
A dispatch to the Times from PetrO-
grad under date of February 15 quotes
Leon TrOtZky, the bolSheviki foreign
minister, as declaring in his report
upon the ending of the negotiations at
Brest-Litovsk that the German terms
included the retention of Poland,
Lithuania, Riga and Moon island and
an indemnity of $4,0OO,OOO,OOO, presum-
ably in gold.
The Russian government, according
TO off Hnia oil
has addressed the following message
to headquarters and all the fronts:
1.-THE council of peoples commits
saries has offered to the Germans to
sign peace Immediately. 1 order that
in all cases where Germans are en-
cOuntered massed pourparlers with
the German soldiers should be organ
lied and the proposal to refrain from
fighting made to them. If the Germans
refuse, then you must offer to them
every possible resistance.
"KRYLENKO."
Germans Occupy Russian Cities.
Berlin, Feb. 2O-German forces have
entered Dvinsk, it was officially an
nounced by the German war office. The
Russians unsuccessfully attempted to
blow up the bridge across the Dvina
river.
The official communication issued
by the German war Office says that
from Riga to as far south as LutSk
German armies are advancing east
ward to Russia.
Vienna, Feb. 2O.-The German army
group under command of Gen. Alexan-
der Won Linsingen, according to an Of
fetal statement issued by the Austrian
war Office, has occupied the Russian
town of Lutsk, in Volhynia, without
fighting.
Bolsheviki in Flight, Report.
London, Feb. 20.-RumorS are cur
rent in Vasa that the bolsheviki gov
ernment In Petrograd has been over
thrown by the social revolutionists un-
der the leadership of NJ Tchernoff, ac-
cording to the correspondent there of
the Politiken of Copenhagen, says a
dispatch to the Exchange Telegraph
company Nikolai Lenine and Leon
Trotzky are said to have escaped to
Riga.
IAhn