The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-01-17
ENGLISH FEAR
SOVIET VICTORY
BOlshevik Advance in South
eastern Asia Causes Appre-
henSiOn in London.
DENIKINE'S ARMY FALLS
British Are Forced to Contend
With Difficulties of Racial
DiSSenSiOn.

LOnQOn, Jan. Io-AtIentlO0 OF the
British people is fixed on the Near
East where recent bolshevik successes
have carried the Red Russian armies
almost up to the threshold of India,
Persia, Mesopotamia, and Asiatic
Turkey. Cabinet members and chiefs
of the British army and navy are to-
day in Paris whether they were has
tily summoned yesterday and are con-
ferring with Premier David Lloyd
George on military and naval matters
in connection. it is believed with con-
ditions in southwestern Asia.
Apprehensions were aroused by the
Issuance of a semi-official statement
yesterday pointing out the situation
that has arisen through the collapse of
General Denikine's army in southern
Russia and bolshevik penetrations of
trans Caucasus. Not only was it ad-
mitted the menace from Russian boil
shevik invasion from the northwest
was very real but it was pointed out
internal conditions in Persia, Turkey
and .Afghanistan were threatening.
In Mesopotamia, too, the British are
forced TO contend with difficulties
arising from racial dissension 1t was
said a soviet advance that captures
the Crimea would make the Black
sea virtually a Russian bolshevik
lake and it was further indicated that
Great Britain could hope for little
help from the new republics of Geor-
gia, Daghestan and Azerbaijan which
are directly in the path of the soviet
advance.
While there is a possibility the boil
sheviki may launch an overwhelming
attack against Poland, the statement
issued yesterday showed the greatest
pre-occupation of officialdom was
over the debacle of Denikine's armies
and the rapid advance of the soviet
forces toward the Persian and Afghan
frontiers.
The situation which now confronts
Great Britain and more or less Japan
and China is not OF sudden growth,
however. For the past two months or
more the bolsheyiki have had an
almost unbroken series of successes
which have swept them forward on
all fronts where their forces are be-
lieved to be formidable
Admiral Kolchak's army in Siberia
seems to have been completely defeat
ed if not dispersed. The reds are far
near Irkutsk. While reports from
Siberia have dealt almost entirely
with operations along the Siberian
railroad, occasional advices have in
dicated the bolsheviki have moved
forward south of that line and have
established themselves near the Mon
.golian frontier southwest Of Irkutsk.
Further to the southwest the soviet
forces have passed AkmoIinsk and are
believed TO have moved southwark and
eastward toward the frontier of
Chlnese Turkestan. The capture of
Bokhara, less than two hundred miles
from the Afghan border, was an
nounced from Moscow a week ago and
it was said krasnodovck on the east
ern shore of the Caspian sea was
firmly in the hands of the bolsheviki.
Thus from the Yeneseze to the Cas-
plan, distance of 200 miles, the boil
sheviki seem to be quite firmly estab-
lished From this line it would an
pear they might be able to essay IN
cursions toward China to the east. on.
Afghanistan and Persia to the south
China lies south of the Caspian sea
and bolshevik agents are said to have
been active there.
odessa is virtually hemmed in by
the reds, who have moved southwark
until they have drawn their lines
across the base of the Crimean penfn-
sula from Nikopol to Melitipol
Thinly veileG threats to restort to
methods of terrorism should the boil
sheviki be opposed by the entente. are
contained in wireless message re-
ceived here from Moscow 1t is said
capital punishment viii be inflicted
upon enemies of the soviet govern
ment only when crimes are proved bv
the all-Russian extraordinary commits
sion, but return to wholesale execu
tions was limited at should the entente
nations take steps TO combat bolshe-
vism