The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-02-28


Count snn Hertiing until the fum
and uncenscred te1t "f the Gev-
man ehancelior's speech hes bcew
received,
Amsterdam. Feb. 27-Germany's
goose-stepptng parade toward Petrc~
grad, Moscow and Kiev has ceased.
The advance continues, but IT, is TO
longer an excursion. The Russian SOL
dIor mobs have turned guerilIas They
are offering stiff resistance ali along
the line and have defeated invading
advance guards in three violent COM
bats, yielding only when the German
main forces made a further stand iu-
tile by numbers and organization Be-
hind the Russian lines workers are
flockins TO the revolut Ionary defense
by the thousands.
The new peace parleys st Bress
Litovsk are about 10 begin. But tisx-
many having refused an arnistica
until peace IS signed and all conditions
met the BolsAevist government has
determined To oppose TO the isatser'B
military machine as dangerous a mob
of armed home defenders as has evex
flung itself In the teeth OF invasion
Belgium is to be repeated en- a RUS
sian scale.
Lenine and his conferees defy The
Germans TO come and get them and
plan 10 give them 81 chase across the
vast Muscovite land. If necessary into
the Ural or even Siberia, with the IN
vader's communications ever lengtnan-
ing and according to Isenines convic~
ition, tho opposition OF the German
i masses ever growing
In the reichstag today. this oppose
ton flared up Inena.r3pGly s=e whan,
Ehtiip Schetdemann. the majority Soc
cialtst leader, attacked the new east-
ern campaign. fatty declaring tho
governments Russian policy ia rot
ours To the B0lsheviki this came 40
: a message of good cheer from the c ~
man proletariat upon whose ultimate
rising they have set theit own and
! Russias fate.
incidentally, after asserting a peaca
by understanding. not by force, vaa
tn one solution in the east, Sch~ide-
mann said his party welcomed Won
Hertling's declarations regarding Sell
GUM and President Wilson's speech.
Resistance StifTens.
The tension that set in with yeste~~
days news that the Germans were
only eight hours fast rail time from
Petrograd after the occupation of
Pskoff, has been considerably relieved
in the last twenty-four hours mainly
by the reports OF the stiffening of Bol-
shevtst resistance. Still ali dispatches
from weli-informed correspondents in
the Russian capital repeat today that
IL the Germans really want to take
Petrograd they can do SO. since the
remnants of the Russian armies those
that are trained and organized, and
not amateurs like most OF the Red
Guards, openly refuse to fight.
But the question asked on all sides
is, once the Germans have Petrograd
49, H. a ~
There lies the crux of TrotZky's argu-
ment at Brest Litovsk: I'm our very
weakness lies our strength" BY TAX
ing Petrograd the Germans would inn
pose upon themselves the necessity
OF also moving faf eastward from their
present positions in the south and ul-
Etimately Of taking Moscow. The
guerilla warfare which. unless peace
IL made, they will have to face sooner
or later on a tremendous scale. they
would rather meet with short than
with long communications behind
them. 1t is argued.
Nor are signs lacking that the Ger
mans. well realizing this, mean to
stop short once Esthonis and Ldvonia
are cleared and the Boishevist menace
to the Ukraine is removed.
Clearing baltic Border.
The new progress recorded by the
Berlin war Office today shows that in
the North no further advance toward
Petrograd has been registered, bur
that the Germans are rather engaged
with clearing the Baltic borderiands OF
Russians. In this process. in the re-
gion north of Dorpal two Russian
regiments were taken prisoner,
In the South the invaders occupied
the towns of Berditchen and kremen
ctr. but only after violent combats
and temporary reverse Berditchom
lies thirty-ave miles south of Zhitomlr
and KremenetE Is some thirty miles
from the Hungarian border,
Probably the sharpest reverse was
inflicted upon them as they approached
vftebsk, 500 miles south OF petrograd.
back eighteen miles as they were
iabout 10 enter orshs, thirty miles
south of vitebsk. Upon the latter
city another German force was NOV
ing from the North. so that the Red
Guards were later forced to yield In
their retreat, the Russians blew up a
bridge over the Berezlna.
Indications from the latest advices
concerning the German forward move
ment IL that their object is to estab-
lish themselves upon an almost
Black sea, with these places as ths
chief point of support:
Narva. on the Finish gulf. seventy
five miles from Petrograd.
Pskoffs on the railroad to Pesro-
, grad, iss miles from the capital
Polotsk, sixty miles west-northwest
OF vietbsk.
Borisov. thirty-etght miles northeast
of Minsk. or Mohiiev IL miles due
east of Minsk. n. s ,sssss 49,
Kisv. capital * Ukraine. 400 mites
snofhrasf nf -Mc~aaw. 4sgs k