The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-06-04
GERMAN GENERAL
 A REAL DICTATOR

London. June 4. (Correspondence of the Associated Press. von der Goltz, commander of the German troops in Lettland, or Latvia, and one of the formerly Russian Baltic provinces of which Libau and Riga are the chief ports. has establish ed a virtual dictatorship in that coun- try under the pretense that he is fighting the spread of Bolshevism among the Lette, according to the Reuter- correspondent at Libau.
 About the middle of April Baltic German troops which had been op- erating in Icttland against the Rus sian Bolsheviki were withdrawn from the front back to Lib,u and, under the direction of the Baltic Baron Manteuffel. executed a coup d' etat, overthrowing the Iettish provisional government and arresting the Let tish cabinet. Premier Ullmanis, how ever, evaded arrest and found asy- lum under the protection of a British mission which was backed by the pres ence of a British warship in Libau.
 The correspondent asserts that this coup d. etat undoubtedly was car ried out with the connivance of Won der Goltz." It will be recalled that one Berlin newspaper has admitted that the movement was the result of an intrigue conducted by the German barons in the Baltic provinces who, it said, had supplied moneJ to main- tain German troops at Libau.
 Won der Goltz owes his presence at tine head of O large force of purely German troops to be an article of the armistice in the world war which provided that German troops should remain in Lettland until the Allies gave orders to the contrary writes the correspondent. His close suppor- ters are Baltic German barons who are descendants of the old Teutonic knights. They hold immense tracts of land and enjoy feudal privileges of a kind that were abolished before the French Revolution. These veal
 thy land owners are extremely tena- cious of their enormous privileges which they fear to see curtailed un- der any democratic regime, and, the
 correspondent says they now have entered into a conspiracy with Ger many's occupying forces to over-
 throw democracy In Lettland and pre- pare the way for annexation to Ger many.
 The Germans act as though they owned the country and they show not the slightest consciousness of having been defeated in the war, says the correspondent. To a British mission which protested against the disarm- ing of Lettish troops in Libau, von der Goltz replied that "the situation respondent says there was not a word
 of truth in this for arms were nc restored to the Let's.
 'sThe British mission here," writes the correspondent, "has no power to coerce the Germans into doing any thing and this can only be done through the machinery of the ar;lis-
 tice commission at Spa. The German troops are making no movement against the Bolsheviki between whom
 and themselves they keep the river Aa-
 won der Goltz pretends that the against whom he has to guard the coun.ry"
 Tho lettish Premier, M. U1lmanis, | a refugee in the house of the British | military mission, told the correspQp-
 dent that England should send am- munition, food and a loan to enable | the Let's to raise an army, that von der Goltz should be removed and a representative of the Allies put in control. This, he said, would break the conspiracy for German domin- ion.
 The correspondent says he was in vited by Colonel Warwick Greene, head of the American mission to at tend a conference at his house with three of the Baltic German leaders who tried hard to win the sympathies of the Americans fin support of a new cabinet which they favored Colonel Greene informed them that he could not recommend his government to rec ognize the situation created by the German coup d' etat so long as the Baltic troops exercised constraint and prevented the restoration of the old