Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1920-08-12
Russians 0verrun Poland While
the Allies Seek to Devise
Ways to Stop Them.
ENEMY CLOSE TO WARSAW
League Of Nations Council Adopts
Basic Plans - Railways Satisfied
With Rate Increases-commu-
mist Labor Party Leaders
Convicted in Sweden.
BY EDWARD w. PIcKARp.

Suspicious that the soviet Russianr
were not acting in good faith when
they offered to negotiate an armistice
with the Poles We're well founded. No
sooner had the Poles reached the place
of meeting than the Russians broke
of the negotiations and demanded
that another discussion be opened at
Minsk. All the time their armies con-
tinued the fierce attack designed to
cut off the Danzig corridor and to cap
ture Warsaw. AT this writing the for
mer part of that program has been
temporarily checked by Polish sue
cesses, but the latter part is about to
be carried out. With the red army
within few miles of Warsaw, the
civilian inhabitants of that city were
in flight and the government was pre-
pairing to move to Cracow. The Rus
slams had captured the great fortress
of Brest-Litovsk and had crossed the
Bug river northwest of that place, ad-
vancfng in echelon in such way as
to force the Poles to evacuate the
strong forts west of Brest-Litovsk and
saw If succor did not come. Further
north, soviet troops that had crossed
the Narew river were defeated, and
in the south. where they threatened
Lemberg, they were being held and
even pushed back in some places.
Since it was agreed that only out
side aid could save Poland from be-
ing crushed by the bolshevilsi, the
main question was the source and ma
ture of that aid. Premier Lloyd
George, placed in most uncomfort-
able position, was said to have called
Krassin and Kamineff, the soviet rep
resentatives, to conference and to
have demanded that the advance into
Poland be Immediately and uncondi-
tionally stopped, even before the sign
Ing of an armistice, or else Great Brit
ain would declare war. If this was his
determination, 1t was reached despite
the views of considerable part Of
his cabinet, including himself, that
peace with Russia must be forced by
economic rather than military meas
ures. Others of the ministers, lead by
Winston Churchill, were said to favor
unrelenting warfare on the bolsheviki
and the extension of unlimited aid to
Poland. There was a rumor in Lon
don that the allies had determined to
send six divisions to Poland, presum-
ably some Of the occupational forces
from Germany. Also, the members of
the supreme council of allied ambas-
sadors were hurriedly called from
their vacations to meet in Paris.
The reply of Moscow to Lloyd
George, according to the London
Times, was refusal to halt the boil
shevik advance on the ground that
the army had been promised the loot
ing of Warsaw. The Russians said
they were prepared to offer Poland
complete independence and wider
boundaries, but that they insisted on
separate peace with the Poles.
The allies realize that in sending an
army to the rescue of the Poles they
may be compelled to violate the neu-
trality which Germany has proclaimed,
and the sincerity of Berlin Is so ques-
! tfonable that this may be done with
out much compunction. A sinister as
pect is given the stand of the Ger
mans by the report that before the
Polish offensive began they made a
secret treaty with the Moscow gov
eminent. The treaty, it is asserted,
contained the following provisions:
Russia, without interference from
Germany, would be allowed to appro-
pirate all Of Polands arms, munitions,
rolling stock and foodstuffs.
After the conquest of Poland permis-