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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1918)
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, TOKTLAXD. 3IARC1T 3, 1918. ALLIES UNABLE TO iL UNDERSTAND S S blunders in Diplomacy in Past Responsible for Rus sia's Downfall. CHANCE OFFERED REJECTED So-Met. All Important and Basis IT pon Which Stable Government Slight Have Been Bnlll, Dis regarded by Entente. Soviet bad prettly we:i lout patalence. And then, at that unhappy moment. air. uonar Uw made hla fw remarks. To get this clear let ua consider the whole question of secret treaties aa re- rarded In Russia ainre the revolution. 'of that was the mainspring- of the noisneviK revolution and wa ao Im portant to Ita iuo-j that Trotsky had 10 aeuver and print those treaties lm mediately following the revolution or the strength of the new sovernmeot would have been much lessened. I have aometlinea wondered what would have happened If Trotsky had had to search throuah the thousands of papcra In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to find them. Fortunately for htm. he did not have to search. Xerale-rf Plays Straase Part. Mr. Nertoff. the bureaucratic bead of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, came and showed him where they were. Mr. Neratoff. by the way, waa a bold over from the time of the empire. Whv did he help Trotsky find them? He certainly had no revolutionary reasons for wanting to see them printed. Thos who are making grimaces over the publishing of these document might do well to give a little thought to the part In their publication played ny .veratoff. But that Is aside from the main Point. The Important consideration that the revolution was only a month old when the Soviet spoke up In de mand for a "democratic peace. came forth with ita programme of pea' without annexations or contrl buttons and the right of nations to de cide their government and allegiance lor themselves.' Ever since that has been one of th two chl.f points In revolutionary minds. The other Is "land to the peo ple. The land question waa the older. but the peace programme baa been the Instrument with which they upset governments. Within a few days of It annunciation, aa soon aa Mlltukoff replied be was going to stand by the It (TH fallowing letter from the earrerpesd eat la P.faT4 far the New York World . th. Trlbaae-la aa lnt.rtln oa 1u. catnw W Himsi s a.Iectloa from ts .-it.at. sod tl wUo of Trotiky-Lnto. V'ritt for tbe collapa of the Holaho vlk attempts to rosea a trootj WIIA Kal.r Hia. It at forta one ebaorver's Jwdsmodt of the In Itussla a una a tbe lattor half of 1 l T. The Ulltr unconsored was to Amortra by a returalaa travolar.) BT A UNO DOBCH-n-EVKOT. CapyrlsbU r Frm fnbllahUg C tnr o Tor World . PETRuURAD. Jan. a. If the allied governments. Including our own. do not like what haa happened In Kusala alnce treaties as written, they ran him out the successful Bolshevik October-. No- I of office. All during the Summer It provided the material out of which was built up the sentiment against the "Imper ialistic allies" And when the Soviet came into Ita full growth In the reac tlon following the Kornlloff affair, you hardly heard anything else In all Russia. Any time during this six months' period all talk about the "Imperial Istle allies' could have been ended by simply railing off ail those old treatle It would not even have been necessary to print them, though that, too. might aa well have been done, aa the actual publication made the allies appear much less Imperialistic than the vague hlnta that went before. In fact, the publication waa something of a let down, aa the masses had an Idea Eng land and France Intended to swallow Oennany and Austria v. hole. Ktw Treaties) Tft"ersj Pesslale All this misunderstanding could have been avoided If the allied governments bad been able to orient themselves fast enough to the Russian situation. The actuating motive of most of them, the acquisition of Constantinople by Russia, waa obviously distasteful to Russia Itself. Tbey could simply have done away with, or published to sat isfy curiosity and new treatiea with revolutionary Russia could have been signed. If this bad been done I do not think Russia would at this moment be con sidering the terms of a separate peace with Germany. We all have been brought to this sorry pass because we did not even try to understand the workings of tbe Russian mind. There was a brand- new situation In diplomacy to handle. and there did not appear to be any one to handle It. For this we are now paying, and If In telling of the Uol sbevlkl action I scold at allied diplo macy It Is because that la the most Important angle for ua. What Inter ests us chiefly at this moment la that the Bolshevlkl have Increased the war difficulties for ua. Reaalaa Army Bllejadged. The fundamental mistake about the Russian revolution, the mistake which all c(tlaena of allied countriea In Rus sia, myself among the number, per sisted in making, was that the Ha staa army could be Induced to fight. believed It In apite of our better Judgment. We believed It because It was desperately Important for ua that Russia should ft-hi. But wa ought to nr known better. We were In the position of the man who beta on the home team when he knows It can only win on a fiuk There was some excuse for thinking so. It Is true. I'lenty of Russians per sisted In thinking so, too. Kerensky's efforts to put fir Into the soldiers tired hearts was an extraordinary per formance. Attack Feneate Pest. The attack be Induced them to make la Gallcta was a forensic feat, and tbe Initial success gained before the spirit went out of the thing Is hardly less extraordinary. Looking back now on my memorlee of that south went army nd tbe way It rallied to a fight for which It bad no stomach. I cannot now feel that the debacle waa anything but the natural ronsequenc of aa artifi cially stimulated assault. Kerensky waa a good friend to the allies too good. So were the other man who supported him. Tereshenko, who waa In the closest touch with the allies, deceived them at the same time be deceived himself. Tereshenko evidently did not know bis own countrymen, and la lying on his cot now In the fortress of Peter and Paul trying to make out what happened. He cannot understand what he did to be Imprisoned, and probably never will, for he committed tbe fatal mistake of misunderstanding his own people. For ua be waa the worst of rood fr1nd. Ho sang the ltiltaht. vember revolution and. of course, tbey do not they have only themselves to thank for It. For the Bolshevik revolution would not have taken place, a separate arm lo tto would not have been signed with Germany, with the possibility of a sep arate peace. If It had not been for a whole aeries of mistaken on the part of the allied governments In relation to Russia. I do not say these mistakes were not quite natural, but really good diplomacy would have avoided mem. Signs of certain trouble have, been for months aa plain aa tbe moon In the say. Ever slnco the Mlllukoff crisis on Slsy 1 the two chief questions on which th Russian attoatlon waa finally wrecked have been sticking up like sore thumbs. Mlllukoff bad to go be cause he refused to make new treaties with the allies, but Insisted on sticking to the old. Krrvaoky Staves Of Pear. Result: First Th Bolshevik finally printed all the secret treatiea and cor respondent, they could Snd and made a creat scandal of it. second The fall of Mlllukoff was ac eompanied by the fall of Minister of War Ouchkorr. cuchkotr nu to go because h Insisted on trying to make the army go on fighting the old flsTht. The army has finished with that aJXalr fcv alanine a aeDarate armistice. Immediate peace and the end of scrt diplomacy were the Russian si gans all Summer. The only reason they have not long since resulted In a aetarate Deac la the fidelity to the allied caus shown by th successive ministries which centered around the figure of Kerensky. Tbey staved off the Inevitable as long as tbey could with the support of th peopl dwln eUlag at every change. Ministries asd Mas) Apart, At the end they got so far out of touch with the maaooe of the Russian population that the only bayonets Ker ensky had with him wnen he fled from tne Winter palac were In the hands of th women's battalion and the boys from the military schools. tor the moment the Soviet (the council of sol diers' and workmen's delegates) with drew Ha support and th government t.U to pieces. Th Soviet had every thing so n raily la Its own hands In Petrocrad that Kerensky could hardly get enough gasoiin for th automobile In which he Bed. It waa the obvious commonplace of th Russian situation that th govern moot could stand only as long as It had the Sovlat behind It. Tbe bare rat tor waa the Soviet. Russian alltea rou!d not afford to take their eyea off It for a moment, liut. lastead. they kept their eyas on th government. Otherwis they would hav don some rapid footwork, par ticularly la the last weeka before the Jsolshevikl drove Kerensky out of town. Co fere me Waa Xnmiry. T have misjudged th situation earlier la th Summer waa, perhapa, natural enough- None of ua could thick t anything but how to keep the Rus sian army la aome kind of fighting form, and those Russians who had tbe same interest at heart we regarded as ur support. But that waa ao excuse for overlooking th fact that they were a email part of th population, and when they ceased to b aa Influential part allied diplomacy had no time to loo. Apparently It had no Idea what It ught to be doing or It would not hav mad so many mistakes. If th allies had had any conception f what th people war thinking la Russia they would hav don on thine; at all coat. Tbey would have called tbe conference en the aim of the war. And. If by not doing It, they handed the bolshevlkl ammunition to use against Karansky. thereby causing his downfall, they have, as I aay. only lAomselvee to thaak. Tbe calling f that conference was bolutiy necessary. It was obviously not agreeable to call it. but It had to b done. Tbe fact the allied govern ments did not call It showed either they sirs badly Informed or stubborn, either f which is inexcusable la the fac of fact. It probabty will be a surprise for th rest of th world to learn that th Bol saevtk revolution got under way whoa Bensr Law got op la the 1 reuse of Com mons. In Cwtober. and aald b did not know anything about a conference to b held on th aims of th war. II waa answering a question of some radi cal member of tbe ho us and as hla remark was printed here be replied that there waa soon to b a general allied conference at Pari on th means ur carrying on in war to a success f ul conclusion, but he waa unaware that this conference waa to tak up th alms of th war. Ta begin with. Fonar Law was ap parency very badly Informed on Rus sian public opinion or h would never bave mad auch a statement In public Ho could not hav told th Russian more plainly to stop talking about secret treaties and gt back to the trenches, and that was about all th Russians noedsd to explod. They ex ploded. too. and one of th most curious thine, about It la that Mr. Bonar probably does not reailx to this day tost be had anything to da with th Bolshovik revolution. Granted that the Russians ehoe an unfortunate tim fur talking about secret treaties doubt th good faith f It. If you like ther was on una capable fact, th Russian bad been talking about hardly anything els for sis months or mor. So It was per fectly apparent that th matter had to bo taken np In on way or another. vtl Less Patfewe. la fact, th Parla conference waa rtgtnally a creed upon for August, and whatever mental reservations there may have boon about It la the minds of other people, in the minds of the lesders of the soviet that conference was going to spend a good shar of I'e tlra oa th question of th alms of th war. Rut thai conference kept being pat off, and pat off. until th when he f hould hav been wide awake and doing. But I hold that for Kerensky. Tere shenko and other Russians to make the mistake was mora excusable than for us to make It. They were in the in ternal fight, to which we were only anxious onlookers. When' we did not wake up and get very buey few days later at the downfall of the conserva tive leaders Tchaldxe. Tseretclli. etc.. In the central committee of the all Russia soviet, ws simply shotted we 11I not know what was going on. There waa Just one thlnfc to do once the Bolshevik! with their immediate peace programme captured the Petro- grad soviet In September. Call an im mediate conference on the alms of the war without delay. It was not only not done but the sttustlon was much ag gravated by the dissuasions in that wabbly institution, the council of the republic, on whether Skobeleff. the representative of the soviet, should be allowed to go to Paris st all. Tereshenko msde It worse by mak ing a streotyped pro-ally speech not that anybody objected to his pro-ally sentiments, but by his speech he showed he wss still following the pol icy of Mlllukoff and Intended to stick by all treaties as written. Then Bonar Law doused all hope of reconstructing treaties as demanded by the soviet and that touched off the whole thing. Peace Offer Forecasted. Looking back on my cable files I see that on October 20, three weeks before tbe revolution, I sent a cable to Amer ica Indicating that there would be s revolution and an Immediate offer of peace to Germany. A week later I sent the same information more def initely ststed In an Interview with Trotsky. In fact, he carried out later everything he told me in that Inter view. Before that Interview was put on the cable, I learned later from the cen sor. It was shown to Tereschenko, who decided to let it go. I do not know why he passed a cable foretelling bis own downfall, perhaps out of a sense of fairness, perhaps because he had helped to stave off the Bolshevik revo lution so long he was tired of it, snd was willing to have a showdown. Un doubtedly he thought the provisional government would win. though he had no reason for thinklnir so. The whole story of Tereschenko's de lusion and the delusion of the allies lies In comparison between the unsuc cessful Bolshevik revolution of July and th later successful Bolshevik rev olution. The July revolution, which had the same purposes and same lead ers aa the later revolution, failed be cause the soviet waa against It. In those days the soviet wss In the hands of the Menshevlkl. The Bolshevlkl bolted once from the all-Russian so viet held shortly before In June, but they did not bave the support of the masses at that time and had to go back. The masses were still following more moderate leaders and were giving them substantial majority In the soviet. So when tbe uprising of July commenced they squelched It. Lealalata' Fewer Waxes. was here at the time of the first all- Russian soviet and was still In Russia at the time of the July revolution, so there was no excuse for it not under standing what was going on. I might say, however. It did not know, or would not know what was leoinff on. My conference with the members of the mission at the time convinced me they had not grasped that the real government of Russia was the I soviet. They pooh-poohed the Idea and I evidently regarded me as a radical per son who did not understand the finer points of politics. Charles Edward Russell, the only member of the political side of the I mission who seemed to understand the I mass movement of the Russian popu- I latlon, I remember, waa regarded In the mission as a well-meaning crank. Mr. Root himself, despite his long po litical career, misjudged the political forces completely and was under the delusion that the moderate Socialist leaders and the cadets could hold the balance of power. Soothing Syrap for U. S. From Americans who bave come to Russia since I have learned that the effect of the Root mission on America was all that I feared It would be. It was soothing syrup. An excuse for this may be found In that they were perhaps betting on the Kerensky government as the only chance to keep an army on the Russian front, but that should not have made them blind to facts. If they bad sounded tha political depths they would have known the Kerensky government could stand only so long as It had the soviet behind it, only so long as the Menshevlkl were In command of the soviet. The moment the Menshevlkl lost command of the soviet, the moment Lenlne was elected president of the Petrograd soviet, the Kerensky government was doomed and there was no time to waste finding out why. And th tragedy of the whole thing Is that at heart the Russian people want Just exactly what the American ; people want a Just, enduring peace. BASKET SALE NETS $42 Reno, Washington, Red Cross Aux iliary Entertainment Is) Success. . The Important point Is that' It was the soviet which put down the Bolshe vlkl revolution of July. It passed reso lutions supporting the provisional gov ernment and it ordered troops to come here from the front. But during the Summer and early Fall the demand for Immediate peace. the publishing of treaties, and a rad ical Socialist platform became so trong that th Bolshevlkl grew stead ily In power until at the end of Sep tember It gained a majority In the Petrograd soviet and proceeded at once to make sweeping changes. It brought Lenlne out of hiding. where he had been all Summer, and lected him president. Any one who new anything at all about the Rus- lan revolution knew what that meant. The comparison waa too striking to be overlooked. The Bolshevlkl had the masses with them this time and they were going the limit. So far aa the United States is con cerned. I find that many Americans in Petrograd lay the blame for our lack of nrleratanding on the Root mission. It KALAMA. Wash, March 2. (Spe cial.) The Reno auxiliary of the Klamath Red Cross Chapter Is giving a very good account of Itself, and quite In contrast to the number of Its members, which is not much more than a Somen. , Recently they gave a basket social In the district schoolhouse at Keno, and In spite of tbe stormy weather the entire country-aide gathered from far and near, every woman laden with a basket full of good things to eat such as seem only to flourish in coun try surroundings. After a programme by the school children, under the man agement of Miss Agnes Schauble, the teacher, the basketa were auctioned off j to the men present, and the very tidy sum of t42 waa realized for the benefit of the Red Cross. , n, ,ni y n vsm III ( 8 Vl i ?. v III fl I la! I I in f ii a y n III I ,2 IL Get the Best Quality Clothes for Spring The best thing you can do for yourself this Spring is to buy the best; it may cost you a little more for good clothes, but you will economize by so doing Hart Schaff ner & Marx Are Good Clothes They're good because they're made of all-wool fabric, hand tailored, and are built for long service. Such clothes as these will give you longer wear. See the early Spring showing now on display. There's a style here for you regardless of your build. The prices we ask for these clothes are within your reach, $25, $30, $35 and up. twitiuumipmiiumuiuiuiffl The New Hats for Spring Are Here New colorings, new shapes, in Stetson, Trimble, Ley- burn, Mallory and Multnomah, $3, $4, $5 and $6. OTHminmnmuiiiHmiinmiiHiniHmmmmim Sam'l Rosenblatt & Co. a o D o .The Men's Store for Quality and Service Southeast Corner Fifth and Alder n o Copyright Hart Bchagncr a atarr tnr-ini I0E 30E30. fighting for Uncle Sam and I am no better than they. Stenography and nursing don't appeal to me. I want to fight." OPPOSITION NOT GENERAL GIRL WOULD DO HER BIT Mildred Bates, of Rosebnrg, Would Drive Army Ambulance. SAX FRANCISCO. March l. Miss Mildred Bates, of Roseburg, Or., wants to drive an ambulance at the front She wants to Join the Army. She wants to fight. She wants to do most any thing that will help win the war. "Will you please send me informa tion concerning lady ambulance driv ers? she wrote to Lieutenant-Colonel John H. Gardner, officer In command of the San Francisco recruiting- district. "Do you take them for training: In San Francisco? If so, wlU you please send me a questionnaire? I am noth ing but a frirl. but I have two brothers Circular Letter Opposing Location of Highway Is Deplored. HOOD RTVER. Or., March S. (Spe cial.) Expression of regret Is general among Hood River people as a result of the recent circular letter issued by J. H. Kobergr, local truck gardener, who disapproves the action of the State Highway Commission In locating; the Columbia River Highway between here and Mosler over what is known as the middle route. It Is said that non residents are likely to get the Impres sion that Hood R er County Is oppos ing the commission's selection. Mr. Koberg's circular letter is attrib uted to selfish motives. uary, marking a total sale In two months of $8400. February sales are expected to pass the J5000 mark and during the year the lodge will sell at least $50,000. Sales to date amount to $17 a member of the local lodge. Aberdeen Elks Buy Thrift Stamps. ABERDEEN, Wash.. March 2. (Spe cial.) Members of the Aberdeen Lodge of Elks purchased )4767 worth of thrift stamps in February and $3633 in Jan- Allen Austrian Found Guilty. CATHXiAMET. Wash., March 2. (Special.) Antone Picnicle, an Aus trian, was tried before Justice Joseph Girard in the Justice Court this week and found guilty of expressing sentiments against the United States. Picnicle declared that he hoped Ger many and Austria would win the war. He has been a resident of this coun try for 23 years and filed a declara tion of Intention 18 years ago that he might fish on the Columbia. Picnicle will be turned over to the Federal authorities. after the advisability of such a course had been pointed out by the military committee. It is believed that men who are on the draft list will find the work most valuable inasmuch as the training- Is thorough and would allow them more rapid promotion when once they entered the National service. Many women are employed about the airship factories of France. They are hoisted in the boatswain's chairs and work on the big fabric envelopes. Walla Walla Boys May Train. WHITMAN COLLEGE. Walla Walla, Wash.. March 2. (Special.) 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