The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1919-01-29
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reinforce the comrades whom they
had left behind them pending the ar
rival of troops of the entente.
Several American regiments have al
ready been diScmbarked at VladivOStOk,
as well as Il large Italian contingent.
French troops have been hurried thith-
er from Tonkin and Indo-Chna and
large British force from India. The
bulk, however, of the allied army
which is to preserve Siberia, with all
her bOundless Industrial and CONNER
cial possibilities and her literally in
eNhaustible latent riches, for the Rus
sian people from the enconOmic and
political despotism of Germany is be-
| ing furnished by Japan.
Released Prisoners Oppose Them.
The CZecho-Slovak forces have re-
| tanned their arms. But they are ham
dicapped by the lack of ammunition
and above all by the absence of artil-
lery. both light and heavy. They have
against them not alone the bolsheviki,
but also considerably more than 1OO-
600 German and Austrian prisoners Of
war who after their capture were in
termed in Siberia, who were released
under the terms of the bolshevik treaty
of peace at Brest-Litovsk and who
have been since then furnished by the
bolShevik government and by the Ger
man military authorities with arms,
munitions, artillery, supplies, money
and even airplanes. They constitute
Il formidable enemy.
| Fortunately for our cause, the bulk
of the people in Siberia are for us. The
white population of Siberia is COM
posed in the main part of class i'm
measurably superior in intelligence. ed
ucation, progressiveness and blood to
the Moscovite mujiks. who form 95 per
cent of the population of European
Russia.
We of the entente owe debt of graf
itCde to these gallant C.echo- Sloyaks
who have remained to champion our
cause in European and Asiatic Russia.
Were 1t r,t for the fight which they
have put up in Siberia against Ger
many and the bOlsheviki the TeutOn
domination of that enormous territory,
almost a continent in itself, would be
well nigh complete and almost beyond
reclamation.
If Germany had control of Siberi
she could afford to surrender, not alone
Belgium and the invaded districts of
France, but even all Alsace and Lor-
raine, away back to the Rhine; to fore
g" any idea of dominating Bulgaria
and Turkey; in one word, to abandon
we'll nigh all her most loudly proclaim
ed and most cherished ambition in 9th
err directions.
Would Be Immune to Boycott
1t would place within her reach MI
tn" raw materials she needed for her
industries and all the markets that she
required for their exploitation. 1t
would render her wholly independent
of any economic boycott that we might
organize against her after the war
that boycott which she breads above
all the other forces that we can bring
to bear against her 1t would restore
to her prosperity and an economic
strength that would allow her to treat
as of no Importance her failure to OBJ
tain indemnities.
1t would eliminate in her political
and commercial mastery of China, with
the latters busy population of 400 mil
lions, and it would render her a stand
ling menace to the island empire of ia
pan, to Americas rich dependencies in
the Philippines. TO Frances great col
onies in Indo-China and to the British
empire of India. 1t would pave the