, 1920-01-29
BY EDWARD w. PIckARD.

Soviet Russia's threat against Per-
na, and consequently against all of
southern Asia, as was foreseen, has so
alarmed the British that they are hur-
rying to h defense of their great in
terests in hat part of the world. Ma
val forces from the Mediterranean al
ready have been sem into the Black
sea and troops, probably about 10000
Of them at first, may be dispatched to
the Caucasus at once. Batum, at the
eastern point of the Black sea, is their
first objective, and from there they
will undertake to occupy and hold the
line of the Tifis-Baku railway running
to h Caspian. Georgia and Azerbai-
Jan, the two new republics which make
up the peninsula between the inland
seas, have asked assistance against
h soviet forces, and the barrier
against T~rotzky's armies must be
built there. According to dispatches
from Paris the supreme council be-
lieves that ultimately at least 100000
troops will be needed In the Caucasus,
and perhaps the estimate will be dou-
bled later. France, of course, because
of her interests in Syria, is concerned
only in a lesser degree than is Great
Britain in the advance of the bolshev-
Xxi toward Asia Minor. AS her share,
1t is understood, France will relieve
the British of all participation in the
military work in the plebiscite area in
Germany, the official announcement by
Marshal Foch being that the British
troops are mot ready" They had
been waiting at Cologne for months
for this duty, however, so 1t is fair to
presume that they will be hurried to
the near East.
The British already have small
forces in Persia and have begun the
organization of the Persian army, but
the native troops cannot yet be count
ed on to any great extent. Aside from
protecting her broad avenue to the In
dian frontier, Britain is vitality inter
ested in saving the immensely valua-
Bile oil. fields of which Baku is the cen
ter. Moreover, under the secret treaty
negotiated last summer, Great Britain
Is bound to protect Persia.
Another move to check the bolshev-
Xxi is reported from Warsaw, where
1t is rumored that the Roumanians are
preparing to occupy Odessa and Organ
ize its defenses against the soviet
forces.
Preceding these developments came
the news that the supreme council had
lifted the trade blockade against soviet
Russia, and the bolshevist leaders
hailed this as a sure sign that the al
lies were about TO make peace with
Them. Their belief appears to be un-
founded, though the disposition to
withdraw from all Intervention within
the boundaries of Russia is growing
nightly. Even the Japanese
that they are about to quit Siberia,
where, however, their protege, General
Semenoff, has just declared himself
supreme ruler because Admiral Kol-
chalk has disappeared. TIT Czechs are
still along the trans-Siberian railway
n the Lake Baikal region and bloody
conflicts between them and the Semen
of troops are said to be frequent.
The essential weakness of the Kol-
rhak-S emenonf opposition to the boil
sheviki, as of the movements led by
Denikine, Yudenitch and others, lies in
the fact that all these leaders are rec
DRnized as representatives of the reac-
tionary and mo%narchistic elements.
Thus they cannot hold the support OF
the great mass of the people, who, II
not bolshevists, are social revolution
ets and social democrats. FOL TINS