FALL OF VIBORG

VIEW OF FINNISH LAKE REGION NEAR FAVASTELLIUSVIEW OF FINNISH LAKE REGION NEAR FAVASTELLIUS

VIEW OF FINNISH LAKE REGION NEAR FAVASTELLIUS

On April 13 the Finnish Official News Bureau gave out a statement to the effect that all German troops landed in Finland had been dispatched at the request of the Finnish Government. On April 17 the Germans landed 40,000 men at Helsingfors. Their naval squadron stationed in the harbor of the Finnish capital consisted of twelve vessels.

The Red Guards offered a stubborn resistance to the invaders, but it soon became apparent that their cause was lost. Upon the landing of the Germans, the Socialist Government escaped from Helsingfors and established itself at Viborg, seventy-five miles northwest of Petrograd. On April 13 the German troops, aided by naval detachments, entered Helsingfors, "after a vigorous encounter with armed bands," as the German official announcements read. According to a Reuter dispatch, a three days' battle preceded the capture of the Finnish capital. It was taken by storm after fierce fighting in the streets. About the same time the City of Abo was taken by the White Guards. The Germans then proceeded to move on Viborg. On April 23 the Finnish Socialist Government protested to the allied representatives, including the American Ambassador to Russia, against the German interference. It declared that the Finnish Socialists would continue for the cause of freedom, with "a profound hatred and contempt for the executioners of nations and of the labor movement."

Viborg fell into the hands of the White Guards on April 30, after nearly all its defenders, 6,000 in all, were slaughtered. Among the prisoners taken was Kullerwo Manner, the President of the Socialist Government. On May 4 Berlin was able to announce complete victory in Finland. The official report follows:

Finland has been cleared of the enemy. German troops, in co-operation with Finnish battalions, attacked the enemy between Lakhti and Tevasthus in an encircling movement, and in a five days' battle, in spite of a bitter defense and desperate attempts to break through, we have overwhelmingly defeated him. The Finnish forces cut off his retreat in a northerly direction. The enemy is closed in on every side, and, after the heaviest losses, is laying down his arms. We took 20,000 prisoners. Thousands of vehicles and horses were captured.

A dispatch dated May 8 reported, however, that the country was far from pacified, and that the Red Guards continued to offer resistance at many points.

Speaking before the Main Committee of the Reichstag, on May 8, Friedrich von Payer, the German Imperial Vice Chancellor, defended Germany's intervention in Finland. The fundamentalaim of this step was "to create in North Finland a final condition of peace, both military and political." He stated that the entire staff of the 43d Russian Army Corps was recently captured in Finland. He denied that Germany intended further to interfere in the inner affairs of Finland, and added that Germany had concluded economic and political treaties with Finland whereby both parties would profit.

While these military operations were being carried on, Finland was becoming a German province. Late in March an American and an English officer, visiting General Mannerheim at Vasa upon orders from their legations, were threatened by Finnish White Guard officers with personal violence and turned out of the dining room of the chief hotel. This incident was described as characteristic of the feeling existing among the majority of Finns. On April 1 Vasabladet, the chief Vasa newspaper, wrote: "No military or other similar persons from any of the countries at war with Germany ought to be allowed to stay within the borders of our country so long as we, with the help of God and Germany, are fighting our hard fight for liberty, order, and justice against the barbarous ally of the western powers." It appears from a case reported on April 26 that the viséing of foreign passports by Finnish officials depends now upon the consent of the Berlin authorities.

Finland was proclaimed a republic in December, 1917. It has always been one of the most democratic countries in Europe. It is asserted, nevertheless, that the experiences through which the former grand duchy has passed in the last six months have converted many classes of the population to monarchism. A Stockholm dispatch dated May 8 declared that a monarchy would probably be proclaimed in Finland, and that Duke Adolph Frederick of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, uncle of the Crown Princess of Germany, would be appointed King.

In the middle of April it became known that the Finnish statesmen had an ambitious plan for the territorial aggrandizement and political expansion of their country at the expense of Russia, and possibly also of Norway. A Stockholm paper published a statement that Germany had agreed to the establishment of a Greater Finland, to include the territory of the Petrograd-Murman railway to the arctic. The newspaper added that the Finnish railway system was to be enlarged with a view to establishing direct connection from North Cape to Budapest and Constantinople. Thus Finland would become the cornerstone of a "Mitteleuropa" stretching from the arctic coast to Asia Minor and beyond. A well-known Finnish painter stated in an interview that the Finnish troops, co-operating with the Germans, would take Petrograd as well as the south coast of the Gulf of Finland, which is ethnically Finnish. An announcement was made on May 8, before the Main Committee of the Reichstag, that no Germans were participating or would participate in the advance of Finnish troops on Petrograd.

A movement has been set afoot among Karelians, presumably by Finns, in favor of the Finnish annexation of Russian Karelia, on the basis of the principle of self-determination. Karelia includes parts of the Governments of Petrograd, Olonetz, and Archangel; its aboriginal population belongs to the Finnish race.

The Imperial Government of Berlin announced on March 7, 1918, that a treaty of peace between Germany and Finland had been signed. Two days later the full text was transmitted from Berlin to London through the wireless stations of the German Government. This treaty with Germany was made by the element in the Republic of Finland represented in a military way by the White Guards, who were pro-German and co-operated with the German army sent immediately afterward to make war in Finland against the Red Guards, who represented the Bolshevist element of the Finnish population. During April an armed conflict between the Reds and the Germans raged around Helsingfors, where the Bolshevist forces fought to annul this treaty, though with steadily diminishing prospects of success.

The full text of the treaty follows:

The Royal German Government and the Finnish Government, inspired by the wish, after the declaration of the independence of Finland and its recognition through Germany, to bring about a condition of peace and friendship between both countries on a lasting basis, have resolved to conclude a peace, and for this purpose they have appointed the following plenipotentiaries: For the Royal German Government, the Chancellor of the German Empire, Dr. Count von Hertling; for the Finnish Government, Dr. Phil Edvard Immanuel Hjelt, State Adviser, Vice Councilor of the University of Helsingfors, and Rafael Waldemar Erich, LL.D., Professor of State Law and of the Law of Nations at the University of Helsingfors, who, after the mutual setting forth in good order and form of their plenipotentiary powers, have come to an agreement on the following provisions:CHAPTER I.—Friendship Between Germany and Finland and the Assuring of the Independence of FinlandArticle 1.The contracting parties declare that between Germany and Finland no state of war exists and that they are resolved henceforth to live in peace and friendship with each other. Germany will do what she can to bring about the recognition of the independence of Finland by all the powers. On the other hand, Finland will not cede any part of her possessions to any foreign power nor constitute a charge on her sovereign territory to any such power before first having come to an understanding with Germany on the matter.Article 2.Diplomatic and consular relations between the contracting parties will be resumed immediately after the confirmation of the peace treaty. The freest possible admission of Consuls on both sides is to be provided for by arrangements in special treaties.Article 3.Each of the contracting parties will replace the damage which has been caused in its own territory by the war, or which the States or populations have brought about by actions contrary to international law, or which has been caused by the consular officials of the other party either to life, liberty, health, or property.CHAPTER II.—War IndemnitiesArticle 4.The contracting parties renounce mutually the making good of war costs; that is to say, State expenses for the carrying on of the war as well as the payment of war indemnities; that is to say, of those prejudices which have arisen for them and their subjects in the war zones by reason of the military measures connected with all the requisitions undertaken in enemy country.CHAPTER III.—The Re-entry Into Force of State TreatiesArticle 5.The treaties which lapsed as a consequence of the war between Germany and Russia shall be replaced as soon as possible by new treaties for relations between the contracting parties, and they shall be made to correspond to the new outlook and conditions which have now arisen. Especially the contracting parties shall at once enter into negotiations in order to draw up a treaty for the settlement of trade and shipping relations between the two countries, to be signed at the same time as the peace treaty.Article 6.Treaties in which, apart from Germany and Russia, also a third power takes part, and in which Finland appears together with Russia or in the place of the latter, come into force between the contracting parties on the ratification of peace treaty or, in case the entry takes place later, at that moment. In connection with collective treaties of political contents, in which other belligerent powers are also involved, the two parties reserve their attitude until after the conclusion of a general peace.CHAPTER IV.—Re-establishment of Private RightsArticle 7.All stipulations existing in the territory of either of the contracting parties, according to which, in view of the state of war, subjects of the other party are subjected to any special regulation whatever in the observation of their private rights, cease to be of force on the confirmation of this treaty. Subjects of either of the contracting parties are such legal persons and societies as have their domicile in the respective territories. Furthermore, subjects of either of the parties, legal persons and societies which do not have their domicile in the territory, must be regarded as on the same level in so far as in the territory of the other party they were submitted to the stipulations applying to such subjects.Article 8.With regard to the civil debt conditions which have been influenced by war laws, the following has been agreed:1. The debt conditions will be re-established in so far as the stipulations in Articles 8 to 12 do not decide otherwise.2. The stipulation in Paragraph 1 does not prejudice the question as to what extent the conditions created by the war (especially the impossibility of settlement of debt owing to the obstacles in traffic or commercial prohibitions in the territory of either of the contracting parties) shall be taken into account in the determination of claims of subjects of either party in accordance with the laws applying thereto in the respective territories. In this connection subjects of the other party who have been prevented by the measures of that party, are not to be dealt with more unfavorably than the subjects of their own State, who have been prevented by the measures of that State.A person who by the war has been prevented from carrying out in good time a payment shall not be obliged to make good the damage which has occurred owing thereto.3. Demands of money, whose payment could be refused during the war on the strength of war laws, need not be paid until after the expiration of three months after the confirmation of the peace treaty. In so far as nothing else has been stipulated in the supplementary treaty, an interest of 5 per cent. per annum must be paid on such debts from the original date on which they were due, for the duration of the war and the further three months, regardless of moratoriums. Up to the day on which they were originally due, the interests agreed upon, if any, must be paid. In the case of bills or checks submission for payment as well as protests against nonpayment must take place within the fourth month after the confirmation of this treaty.4. For the settlement of outstanding affairs and other civil obligations, officially recognized unions for the protection of debtors and for the examination of claims of lay and legal persons belonging to the union, as well as their plenipotentiaries, are to be mutually recognized and permitted.Article 9.Each contracting party will immediately after the confirmation of the peace treaty resume payment of its obligations, especially the public debt duties to subjects of the other party. The obligations which became due before the confirmation of the treaty will be paid within three months after the confirmation.Article 10.Copyrights, trade protective rights, concessions and privileges, as well as similar claims on public legal foundations, which have been influenced by war laws, shall be re-established, in so far as nothing else has been stipulated in Article 12.Each contracting party will grant subjects of the other party who on account of the war have neglected the legal period in which to undertake an action necessary for the establishment or maintenance of a trade protective right, without prejudice to the justly obtained rights of third parties, a period of at least one year in which to recover the action. Trade protective rights of subjects of one party which were in force on the outbreak of war, shall not expire in the territory of the other party, owing to their non-application, till after the termination of four years from the confirmation of this treaty. If in the territory of one of the contracting parties a trade protective right, which in accordance with the war laws could not be applied for, is applied for by an agent who during the war has taken protective measures in the territory of the other party in accordance with the rules, such right, if claimed within six months after the confirmation of the treaty, shall, with the reservation of the rights of third parties, have priority over all applications submitted in the meantime, and cannot be made ineffective by facts which have arisen in the meantime.Article 11.Periods for the superannuation of rights shall, in the territory of each of the contracting parties, toward subjects of the other party, expire at the earliest one year after the confirmation of the peace treaty in so far as they had not expired at the time of the outbreak of war. The same applies to periods for the submission of dividend-warrants or warrants for shares in profit, as well as to bills which have become redeemable or have become otherwise payable.Article 12.The activities of authorities who on the strength of war laws have become occupied with the supervision, custody, administration, or liquidation of property or with the receiving of payments, are without prejudice to the stipulationsof Article 13, to be wound up in accordance with the following principles:1. Properties under supervision, in custody or under administration, are to be set free immediately on the demand of the parties entitled to them. Until the moment of transfer to the entitled party care must be taken for the safeguarding of his interests.2. The provisions of Paragraph 1 shall not modify the properly acquired right of a third party. Payments and other obligations of a debtor which, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, have been received or caused to be received at the places mentioned, shall, in the territories of the contracting parties, have the same effect as if the creditor himself had received them.Civil dispositions which have been made at the places mentioned at the instigation of the parties or by them will have full effect and are to be maintained by the parties.3. Regarding the operations of the places mentioned at the beginning of this article, especially those for receipts and payments, details shall at once be given to the authorized parties immediately upon demand. Claims which have been lodged to be dealt with at these places can only be dealt with in accordance with the stipulations of Article 14.Article 13.Land or rights in land or in mines as well as rights in the use or exploitation of lands, or undertakings, or claims for participation in an undertaking, especially those represented by shares, which have been forcibly alienated from the persons entitled to them by reason of war laws, shall be transferred to the former owner within a period of one year after the confirmation of the peace treaty, and there shall be returned to him any profits which have accrued on such property during the alienation or deprivation, and this shall be done free from all rights of third parties which may have arisen in the meantime.CHAPTER VI.—Indemnity for Civil DamagesArticle 14.Subjects of one of the contracting parties resident in the territory of the other contracting party who, by reason of war laws, have suffered damage either by the temporary or lasting privation of concessions, privileges, and similar claims, or by the supervision, trusteeship, administration or alienation of property, are to be appropriately indemnified so far as the damage by the war cannot be replaced by the actual re-establishment of their former conditions. This also applies to shareholders who, on account of their character as foreign enemies, are excluded from certain rights.Article 15.Each of the contracting parties will indemnify the civilian subjects of the other party for damages which have been caused to them in its territory during the war by the State officials or the population there through breaches of international law and acts of violence against life, health, or property.Article 16.Each of the contracting parties will at once pay to the subjects of the other party their just claims so far as this has not already been done.Article 17.For the fixing of the damages, according to Articles 14 and 15, there shall meet in Berlin a commission immediately after the confirmation of this treaty which shall consist of one-third of each of the contracting parties and one-third of neutrals. The President of the Swiss Bundesrat shall be asked to nominate the neutral members, from whom the Chairman shall be chosen. The commission shall fix the principles, on which it is to work, and it shall decide as to what procedure it shall follow. Its decisions shall be carried out by sub-commissions, which shall consist of one representative from each of the contracting parties and a neutral umpire. The amounts fixed by the sub-commissions are to be paid within one month of the decision being made.CHAPTER VII.—The Exchange of Prisoners of War and Interned CiviliansArticle 18.Finnish prisoners of war in Germany and German prisoners of war in Finland shall, as soon as practicable, be exchanged within the times fixed by a German-Finnish Commission, and subject to the payment of the costs entailed in such exchange in so far as those prisoners do not wish to stay in the country where they happen to be, with its consent, or to go to another country. The commission will also have to settle the further details of such exchange and to supervise their execution.Article 19.The deported or interned civilians on both sides will be sent home as soon as practicable free of charge so far as, subject to the consent of the country on whose territory they are staying, they do not wish to remain there or wish to go to another country. The settlement of the details and the supervision of their execution shall be carried out by the commission mentioned in Article 18. The Finnish Government will endeavor to obtain from the Russian Government the release of those Germans who were captured in Finnish territory and who at the present time are outside Finnish on Russian territory.Article 20.Subjects of one party who at the outbreak of war had their domicile or commercial establishments in the territory of the other party and who did not remain in that territory may return there as soon as the other party is not in a state of war. Their return can only be refused on the ground of the endangering of the internal or foreign safety of theState. It would suffice that a pass be made out by the authorities of the home Government in which it is to be stated that the bearer is one of those persons as stipulated in Item 1. No visé is to be necessary on these passes.Article 21.Each of the Contracting Parties undertakes to respect and to tend the several burial places of subjects of the other party who fell in the war as well as those who died during internment or deportation and the persons intrusted by each party with care and proper decoration of the burial places may attend to these duties in accord with the authorities of each country. Questions connected with the care of such burial places are reserved for further agreements.CHAPTER VIII.—Amnesty.Article 22.Each of the contracting parties concedes amnesty from penalties to the subjects of the other party who are prisoners of war for all criminal acts committed by them and further to all civilian interned or deported subjects of the other party for all punishable acts committed by them during their internment or deportation period, and lastly to all subjects of the other party for crimes against all exceptional laws made to the disadvantage of enemy foreigners. The amnesty will not apply to actions committed after the confirmation of the peace treaty.Article 23.Each party concedes complete amnesty to all its own subjects in view of the work which they have done in the territory of the other party as prisoners of war, interned civilians, or deported civilians.Article 24.The contracting parties reserve to themselves the right to make further agreements according to which each party may grant an amnesty of penalties decreed on account of actions committed to its disadvantage.CHAPTER IX.—The Treatment of Mercantile Vessels and Cargoes Which Have Fallen Into the Hands of the Enemy.Article 25.Mercantile ships of one contracting party which lay in the ports of the other contracting party on the outbreak of the war, as well as their cargoes, are to be given back to their owners, or in so far as this is not possible they are to be paid for in money. For the use of such embargoed vessels during the war the usual daily freight is to be paid.Article 26.German mercantile ships and their cargoes which are in the power of Finland, except in cases foreseen in Article 25 at the signing of this treaty or which may arrive there later, are to be given back if on the outbreak of war they were in an enemy port or were interned in neutral waters by enemy forces.Article 27.The mercantile vessels of either of the contracting parties captured as prizes in the zone of power of the other party shall be regarded as definitely confiscated if they have been legally condemned as prizes, and if they do not come under the provisions of Articles 25 and 26. Otherwise they are to be given back, or, in so far as they are no longer available, they are to be paid for. The provisions of Paragraph 1 are to apply also to ships' cargoes taken as prizes belonging to subjects of the contracting parties, but goods belonging to subjects of one of the contracting parties on board ships flying enemy flags which have fallen into the hands of the other contracting party are in all cases to be handed over to their rightful owners, or, so far as this is not possible, they are to be paid for.Article 28.The carrying out of the provisions contained in Articles 25 to 27, especially the fixing of the damages to be paid, shall be decided by a mixed commission, which shall consist of one representative from each of the contracting parties with a neutral umpire, and shall sit in Stettin within three months after the date of confirmation of the peace treaty. The President of the Swiss Bundesrat shall be requested to nominate the umpire.Article 29.The contracting parties will do all in their power to facilitate the free return of the mercantile ships and their cargoes to their homes as set forth in Articles 25 to 27. The contracting parties will also give their support to each other in the re-establishment of the mutual commercial intercourse, after the assuring of safe shipping routes, which had been disturbed by the war.CHAPTER X.—Adjustment of the Aland Question.Article 30.The contracting parties are agreed that the Forts put upon the Aland Islands are to be removed as soon as possible, and that the lasting non-fortified character of these Islands and also their treatment in a military and technical sense for purposes of shipping, shall be settled by agreement between Germany, Finland, Russia and Sweden; and to these agreements, at the wish of Germany, the other States lying in the Baltic Sea shall be invited to assent.CHAPTER XI.—Final Provisions.Article 31.The Peace Treaty shall be confirmed. The confirmatory documents shall be exchanged as soon as practicable in Berlin.Article 32.The Peace Treaty, so far as is not otherwise stipulated, shall come into force with its confirmation. For the making of supplementary additions to the Treaty the representatives of the contracting parties shall meet in Berlin within four months of its confirmation.

CHAPTER I.—Friendship Between Germany and Finland and the Assuring of the Independence of Finland

Article 1.The contracting parties declare that between Germany and Finland no state of war exists and that they are resolved henceforth to live in peace and friendship with each other. Germany will do what she can to bring about the recognition of the independence of Finland by all the powers. On the other hand, Finland will not cede any part of her possessions to any foreign power nor constitute a charge on her sovereign territory to any such power before first having come to an understanding with Germany on the matter.

Article 2.Diplomatic and consular relations between the contracting parties will be resumed immediately after the confirmation of the peace treaty. The freest possible admission of Consuls on both sides is to be provided for by arrangements in special treaties.

Article 3.Each of the contracting parties will replace the damage which has been caused in its own territory by the war, or which the States or populations have brought about by actions contrary to international law, or which has been caused by the consular officials of the other party either to life, liberty, health, or property.

CHAPTER II.—War Indemnities

Article 4.The contracting parties renounce mutually the making good of war costs; that is to say, State expenses for the carrying on of the war as well as the payment of war indemnities; that is to say, of those prejudices which have arisen for them and their subjects in the war zones by reason of the military measures connected with all the requisitions undertaken in enemy country.

CHAPTER III.—The Re-entry Into Force of State Treaties

Article 5.The treaties which lapsed as a consequence of the war between Germany and Russia shall be replaced as soon as possible by new treaties for relations between the contracting parties, and they shall be made to correspond to the new outlook and conditions which have now arisen. Especially the contracting parties shall at once enter into negotiations in order to draw up a treaty for the settlement of trade and shipping relations between the two countries, to be signed at the same time as the peace treaty.

Article 6.Treaties in which, apart from Germany and Russia, also a third power takes part, and in which Finland appears together with Russia or in the place of the latter, come into force between the contracting parties on the ratification of peace treaty or, in case the entry takes place later, at that moment. In connection with collective treaties of political contents, in which other belligerent powers are also involved, the two parties reserve their attitude until after the conclusion of a general peace.

CHAPTER IV.—Re-establishment of Private Rights

Article 7.All stipulations existing in the territory of either of the contracting parties, according to which, in view of the state of war, subjects of the other party are subjected to any special regulation whatever in the observation of their private rights, cease to be of force on the confirmation of this treaty. Subjects of either of the contracting parties are such legal persons and societies as have their domicile in the respective territories. Furthermore, subjects of either of the parties, legal persons and societies which do not have their domicile in the territory, must be regarded as on the same level in so far as in the territory of the other party they were submitted to the stipulations applying to such subjects.

Article 8.With regard to the civil debt conditions which have been influenced by war laws, the following has been agreed:

1. The debt conditions will be re-established in so far as the stipulations in Articles 8 to 12 do not decide otherwise.

2. The stipulation in Paragraph 1 does not prejudice the question as to what extent the conditions created by the war (especially the impossibility of settlement of debt owing to the obstacles in traffic or commercial prohibitions in the territory of either of the contracting parties) shall be taken into account in the determination of claims of subjects of either party in accordance with the laws applying thereto in the respective territories. In this connection subjects of the other party who have been prevented by the measures of that party, are not to be dealt with more unfavorably than the subjects of their own State, who have been prevented by the measures of that State.

A person who by the war has been prevented from carrying out in good time a payment shall not be obliged to make good the damage which has occurred owing thereto.

3. Demands of money, whose payment could be refused during the war on the strength of war laws, need not be paid until after the expiration of three months after the confirmation of the peace treaty. In so far as nothing else has been stipulated in the supplementary treaty, an interest of 5 per cent. per annum must be paid on such debts from the original date on which they were due, for the duration of the war and the further three months, regardless of moratoriums. Up to the day on which they were originally due, the interests agreed upon, if any, must be paid. In the case of bills or checks submission for payment as well as protests against nonpayment must take place within the fourth month after the confirmation of this treaty.

4. For the settlement of outstanding affairs and other civil obligations, officially recognized unions for the protection of debtors and for the examination of claims of lay and legal persons belonging to the union, as well as their plenipotentiaries, are to be mutually recognized and permitted.

Article 9.Each contracting party will immediately after the confirmation of the peace treaty resume payment of its obligations, especially the public debt duties to subjects of the other party. The obligations which became due before the confirmation of the treaty will be paid within three months after the confirmation.

Article 10.Copyrights, trade protective rights, concessions and privileges, as well as similar claims on public legal foundations, which have been influenced by war laws, shall be re-established, in so far as nothing else has been stipulated in Article 12.

Each contracting party will grant subjects of the other party who on account of the war have neglected the legal period in which to undertake an action necessary for the establishment or maintenance of a trade protective right, without prejudice to the justly obtained rights of third parties, a period of at least one year in which to recover the action. Trade protective rights of subjects of one party which were in force on the outbreak of war, shall not expire in the territory of the other party, owing to their non-application, till after the termination of four years from the confirmation of this treaty. If in the territory of one of the contracting parties a trade protective right, which in accordance with the war laws could not be applied for, is applied for by an agent who during the war has taken protective measures in the territory of the other party in accordance with the rules, such right, if claimed within six months after the confirmation of the treaty, shall, with the reservation of the rights of third parties, have priority over all applications submitted in the meantime, and cannot be made ineffective by facts which have arisen in the meantime.

Article 11.Periods for the superannuation of rights shall, in the territory of each of the contracting parties, toward subjects of the other party, expire at the earliest one year after the confirmation of the peace treaty in so far as they had not expired at the time of the outbreak of war. The same applies to periods for the submission of dividend-warrants or warrants for shares in profit, as well as to bills which have become redeemable or have become otherwise payable.

Article 12.The activities of authorities who on the strength of war laws have become occupied with the supervision, custody, administration, or liquidation of property or with the receiving of payments, are without prejudice to the stipulationsof Article 13, to be wound up in accordance with the following principles:

1. Properties under supervision, in custody or under administration, are to be set free immediately on the demand of the parties entitled to them. Until the moment of transfer to the entitled party care must be taken for the safeguarding of his interests.

2. The provisions of Paragraph 1 shall not modify the properly acquired right of a third party. Payments and other obligations of a debtor which, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, have been received or caused to be received at the places mentioned, shall, in the territories of the contracting parties, have the same effect as if the creditor himself had received them.

Civil dispositions which have been made at the places mentioned at the instigation of the parties or by them will have full effect and are to be maintained by the parties.

3. Regarding the operations of the places mentioned at the beginning of this article, especially those for receipts and payments, details shall at once be given to the authorized parties immediately upon demand. Claims which have been lodged to be dealt with at these places can only be dealt with in accordance with the stipulations of Article 14.

Article 13.Land or rights in land or in mines as well as rights in the use or exploitation of lands, or undertakings, or claims for participation in an undertaking, especially those represented by shares, which have been forcibly alienated from the persons entitled to them by reason of war laws, shall be transferred to the former owner within a period of one year after the confirmation of the peace treaty, and there shall be returned to him any profits which have accrued on such property during the alienation or deprivation, and this shall be done free from all rights of third parties which may have arisen in the meantime.

CHAPTER VI.—Indemnity for Civil Damages

Article 14.Subjects of one of the contracting parties resident in the territory of the other contracting party who, by reason of war laws, have suffered damage either by the temporary or lasting privation of concessions, privileges, and similar claims, or by the supervision, trusteeship, administration or alienation of property, are to be appropriately indemnified so far as the damage by the war cannot be replaced by the actual re-establishment of their former conditions. This also applies to shareholders who, on account of their character as foreign enemies, are excluded from certain rights.

Article 15.Each of the contracting parties will indemnify the civilian subjects of the other party for damages which have been caused to them in its territory during the war by the State officials or the population there through breaches of international law and acts of violence against life, health, or property.

Article 16.Each of the contracting parties will at once pay to the subjects of the other party their just claims so far as this has not already been done.

Article 17.For the fixing of the damages, according to Articles 14 and 15, there shall meet in Berlin a commission immediately after the confirmation of this treaty which shall consist of one-third of each of the contracting parties and one-third of neutrals. The President of the Swiss Bundesrat shall be asked to nominate the neutral members, from whom the Chairman shall be chosen. The commission shall fix the principles, on which it is to work, and it shall decide as to what procedure it shall follow. Its decisions shall be carried out by sub-commissions, which shall consist of one representative from each of the contracting parties and a neutral umpire. The amounts fixed by the sub-commissions are to be paid within one month of the decision being made.

CHAPTER VII.—The Exchange of Prisoners of War and Interned Civilians

Article 18.Finnish prisoners of war in Germany and German prisoners of war in Finland shall, as soon as practicable, be exchanged within the times fixed by a German-Finnish Commission, and subject to the payment of the costs entailed in such exchange in so far as those prisoners do not wish to stay in the country where they happen to be, with its consent, or to go to another country. The commission will also have to settle the further details of such exchange and to supervise their execution.

Article 19.The deported or interned civilians on both sides will be sent home as soon as practicable free of charge so far as, subject to the consent of the country on whose territory they are staying, they do not wish to remain there or wish to go to another country. The settlement of the details and the supervision of their execution shall be carried out by the commission mentioned in Article 18. The Finnish Government will endeavor to obtain from the Russian Government the release of those Germans who were captured in Finnish territory and who at the present time are outside Finnish on Russian territory.

Article 20.Subjects of one party who at the outbreak of war had their domicile or commercial establishments in the territory of the other party and who did not remain in that territory may return there as soon as the other party is not in a state of war. Their return can only be refused on the ground of the endangering of the internal or foreign safety of theState. It would suffice that a pass be made out by the authorities of the home Government in which it is to be stated that the bearer is one of those persons as stipulated in Item 1. No visé is to be necessary on these passes.

Article 21.Each of the Contracting Parties undertakes to respect and to tend the several burial places of subjects of the other party who fell in the war as well as those who died during internment or deportation and the persons intrusted by each party with care and proper decoration of the burial places may attend to these duties in accord with the authorities of each country. Questions connected with the care of such burial places are reserved for further agreements.

CHAPTER VIII.—Amnesty.

Article 22.Each of the contracting parties concedes amnesty from penalties to the subjects of the other party who are prisoners of war for all criminal acts committed by them and further to all civilian interned or deported subjects of the other party for all punishable acts committed by them during their internment or deportation period, and lastly to all subjects of the other party for crimes against all exceptional laws made to the disadvantage of enemy foreigners. The amnesty will not apply to actions committed after the confirmation of the peace treaty.

Article 23.Each party concedes complete amnesty to all its own subjects in view of the work which they have done in the territory of the other party as prisoners of war, interned civilians, or deported civilians.

Article 24.The contracting parties reserve to themselves the right to make further agreements according to which each party may grant an amnesty of penalties decreed on account of actions committed to its disadvantage.

CHAPTER IX.—The Treatment of Mercantile Vessels and Cargoes Which Have Fallen Into the Hands of the Enemy.

Article 25.Mercantile ships of one contracting party which lay in the ports of the other contracting party on the outbreak of the war, as well as their cargoes, are to be given back to their owners, or in so far as this is not possible they are to be paid for in money. For the use of such embargoed vessels during the war the usual daily freight is to be paid.

Article 26.German mercantile ships and their cargoes which are in the power of Finland, except in cases foreseen in Article 25 at the signing of this treaty or which may arrive there later, are to be given back if on the outbreak of war they were in an enemy port or were interned in neutral waters by enemy forces.

Article 27.The mercantile vessels of either of the contracting parties captured as prizes in the zone of power of the other party shall be regarded as definitely confiscated if they have been legally condemned as prizes, and if they do not come under the provisions of Articles 25 and 26. Otherwise they are to be given back, or, in so far as they are no longer available, they are to be paid for. The provisions of Paragraph 1 are to apply also to ships' cargoes taken as prizes belonging to subjects of the contracting parties, but goods belonging to subjects of one of the contracting parties on board ships flying enemy flags which have fallen into the hands of the other contracting party are in all cases to be handed over to their rightful owners, or, so far as this is not possible, they are to be paid for.

Article 28.The carrying out of the provisions contained in Articles 25 to 27, especially the fixing of the damages to be paid, shall be decided by a mixed commission, which shall consist of one representative from each of the contracting parties with a neutral umpire, and shall sit in Stettin within three months after the date of confirmation of the peace treaty. The President of the Swiss Bundesrat shall be requested to nominate the umpire.

Article 29.The contracting parties will do all in their power to facilitate the free return of the mercantile ships and their cargoes to their homes as set forth in Articles 25 to 27. The contracting parties will also give their support to each other in the re-establishment of the mutual commercial intercourse, after the assuring of safe shipping routes, which had been disturbed by the war.

CHAPTER X.—Adjustment of the Aland Question.

Article 30.The contracting parties are agreed that the Forts put upon the Aland Islands are to be removed as soon as possible, and that the lasting non-fortified character of these Islands and also their treatment in a military and technical sense for purposes of shipping, shall be settled by agreement between Germany, Finland, Russia and Sweden; and to these agreements, at the wish of Germany, the other States lying in the Baltic Sea shall be invited to assent.

CHAPTER XI.—Final Provisions.

Article 31.The Peace Treaty shall be confirmed. The confirmatory documents shall be exchanged as soon as practicable in Berlin.

Article 32.The Peace Treaty, so far as is not otherwise stipulated, shall come into force with its confirmation. For the making of supplementary additions to the Treaty the representatives of the contracting parties shall meet in Berlin within four months of its confirmation.

During the month ended May 15, 1918, the German advance in the territory of the former Russian Empire continued uninterruptedly. While minor military operations were conducted in the Province of Kursk, in Russia proper, the main body of the invading army occupied the Crimea and penetrated into the Donetz coal basin. On April 24 the German troops, under General Kosch, reached the City of Simferopol, in the Crimea. A week later they occupied Sebastopol, the great military and commercial seaport, famous in Russian history. A portion of the Russian Black Sea fleet fell into the hands of the Germans. On May 3 the invaders seized Taganrog, on the Sea of Azov. On May 9 they took Rostov, at the mouth of the River Don, but two days later the city was again in Russian hands. The Germans are apparently intent on occupying the seacoast from Bessarabia, on the west, to the Caucasus, on the east.

The Bolshevist régime gave signs of undergoing a process of reorganization. It sought to enlist the services of officials who had served under the Provisional Government and of Generals of the old army. A new War Department was formed. Trotzky, the Minister of War and Marine, advocated universal conscription of labor. The Central Executive Committee, at his suggestion, decreed compulsory military service. Workmen and peasants from 18 to 40 years old were to be trained for eight consecutive weeks, for a weekly minimum of eight hours. Women were accepted into the army as volunteers.

The Bolshevist authorities made several attempts to suppress rioting and street looting. Early in May the Red Guards fought a pitched battle with the Moscow anarchists, who refused to surrender their munitions, and stamped out their organization. The Soviets passed resolutions and took measures against the anti-Jewish massacres which occurred in numerous cities. Disorder and mob rule, however, continued to prevail in Russia, while hunger and unemployment were daily increasing.

On April 16 M. Gukovsky, the Commissary for Finance, reported to the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets on Russia's financial and industrial condition. He said that the semi-yearly expenditure would amount to 4,000,000,000 rubles, while the income expected was only 3,300,000,000 rubles. The railroads had lost 70 per cent. of their freight capacity, and the cost of operation had increased ten times, (120,000 against 11,600 rubles per versta.) The Central Government, he stated, derived no revenue from taxes, as the local Soviets used the sums they collected for their own purposes. To illustrate the industrial conditions the Commissary cited the example of the Sormov locomotive works, whose daily output is two locomotives, instead of eighteen as formerly. M. Gukovsky recommended strict economy in expenditures and urged the necessity of securing the services of financial and industrial experts for the purpose of organizing an efficient State machinery.

Among the recent legislative measures of the Moscow Government must be mentioned the nationalization of foreign trade, which is a part of the general Bolshevist scheme of Socialist reforms. A special board has been created to regulate the prices of all exports and imports.

In the middle of April hostilities were reopened between the newly collected troops of General Korniloff, former Russian Commander in Chief, and the Bolshevist forces. It was reported that the Bolsheviki heavily defeated the anti-Soviet troops, capturing Novocherkask andwounding the Cossack General. It was also stated that General Dutoff, another anti-Bolshevist leader, was captured by the Soviet troops, and that General Semyonov, the leader of the Cossack movement against the Bolsheviki in Siberia, was killed.

The incident of the Japanese landing at Vladivostok was near closing, when further interest in the Far Eastern situation was aroused in Russia by a number of documents seized on the person of a member of the anti-Soviet "Siberian Government." According to a note addressed on April 26 by M. Chicherin to diplomatic representatives in Moscow, these documents proved that the Consuls of Great Britain, France, and America—and the diplomatic representatives of these powers in Peking—sought to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia by participating in the counter-revolutionary movement for an autonomous Government in Siberia. A similar charge was laid to the Japanese officials. The Russian Government, therefore, demanded the recall of the allied Consular officers at Vladivostok, also asking the Allies to define their attitude toward the Soviet Government. Neither Ambassador Francis nor the French Ambassador, M. Noulens, made any official reply to the Russian charges. M. Noulens had previously drawn upon himself the wrath of the Bolsheviki by declaring that the armed intervention of the Allies in Russia would be an act of friendly assistance. Mr. Francis informally notified the Moscow Government that, in his opinion, the documents failed to involve the American officials. On May 9 Secretary Lansing instructed him to present informally to the Russian Foreign Office a denial of its charge against the American Consul at Vladivostok.

In a speech on April 27 Baron Shimpei Goto, the new Japanese Foreign Minister, referred to the malevolent propaganda which is being conducted in Russia with a view to creating an estrangement between Japan and Russia. He expressed the view that "Russia is a power endeavoring to reorganize a machine temporarily out of order," adding: "Japan must give encouragement, assistance, and support to the work of reorganization in Russia. We trust the sound sense of the Russian people will not be misled by reports calculated to keep the two neighbors apart."

Shortly after the capture of Sebastopol the Russian Government protested to Germany against the seizure of the Black Sea fleet and the invasion of the Crimea. The Russian note pointed out that these acts were in contravention of the Brest treaty and that they might endanger the peaceful relations between the two countries. The Germans did not seem to be concerned to maintain these relations. They treated the population of the occupied territories with harshness. Starving refugees were not admitted into the regions under their domination. It was reported that in the Government of Minsk able-bodied persons were seized in the streets and sent to Germany in locked cars. Constant food requisitioning was another feature of the German rule in Russia.

On April 15 M. Chicherin, Russian Commissary for Foreign Affairs, protested to Berlin against the outrages committed by the German troops in Russia. The text of the note follows:

The Central Soviet institutions receive many complaints with regard to German troops burning Russian villages and using violence against Russian inhabitants. An eyewitness well known to us and absolutely trustworthy states that at Lepel, northwest of Mogileff, German soldiers killed a whole family, not sparing women and children, on the plea that one of the family belonged to a partisan detachment. The local military authorities state that at the village of Novoselki, Mogileff, on April 5, there appeared an officer and soldiers of the 346th Regiment and took oats from the inhabitants by force. The officer was killed by the peasants, and the soldiers fled. After this the village was surrounded by the soldiers, fired on by machine guns, and burned.The following day the German commander sent a notice to the Russian military authorities at Orsha saying that the inhabitants of Novoselki had been ejected, and the village burned owing to a German officer's being killed.

The following day the German commander sent a notice to the Russian military authorities at Orsha saying that the inhabitants of Novoselki had been ejected, and the village burned owing to a German officer's being killed.

MAP OF THE UKRAINE AND OTHER REGIONS OF RUSSIA NOW UNDER GERMAN DOMINATIONMAP OF THE UKRAINE AND OTHER REGIONS OF RUSSIA NOW UNDER GERMAN DOMINATION

MAP OF THE UKRAINE AND OTHER REGIONS OF RUSSIA NOW UNDER GERMAN DOMINATION

Observers of Russian life agree thatfeelings of resentment and animosity on the part of the Russian population for the German oppressor are steadily growing throughout the country. At the same time good feeling between the Russians and the Allies, especially the Americans, is on the increase. British and French troops are co-operating with Bolshevist forces in defending against Finns and Germans the Murman seacoast and the railway from the interior of Russia to the arctic ports of Alexandrovsk and Archangel, where large supplies of valuable war materials are stored up. The War Council attached to the Murman local Soviet consists of one Russian, one Englishman, and one Frenchman. The landing of the allied troops at Alexandrovsk the Germans regarded as a violation of the Brest treaty, which provides for peace with Finland, and protested to the Moscow Government against the act.

The constant exchange of protests between Berlin and Moscow is partly caused by the ambiguous wording of the Brest treaty. On April 24 Adolf Joffe, the Bolshevist Ambassador in Berlin, telegraphed to Moscow that the Russian translation of the treaty was considered by the German authorities incorrect, and that the publication of the final draft of the document was postponed until the receipt of an authentic version.

It appears that Germany has been making further attempts to encourage the separatist tendency in Russia, in contraventionof the Brest treaty. The German Government is reported to have inquired of the local Crimean authorities concerning the nationalization of their flag. The Bolsheviki interpreted this step as indicative of the German desire to separate the Taurida Republic from the Russian Federation.

According to a communication issued by the Rumanian Chargé d'Affaires, the National Assembly of Bessarabia voted, on April 9, the union of the province to Rumania by 86 against 3. Thereupon, the Rumanian Premier, amid enthusiastic acclamation, proclaimed the union to be "definitive and indissoluble," and a delegation was sent to Jassy to present the homage of the people of Bessarabia to the King. Rumania seems to have acted at the suggestion of Germany. It is known that the latter proposed to Rumania to annex a part of Bessarabia and thus compensate herself for Rumanian territory taken by Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. It is also known that (on March 22?) Russia signed a treaty with Rumania regarding Bessarabia. The province was to be evacuated by the Rumanian troops, which had occupied it at the request of the population, and the guarding of Bessarabia was to pass into the hands of local militia, while all evacuated places were to be immediately occupied by Russian troops. Russia undertook to leave Rumania the surplus of Bessarabian grain remaining after the local population and Russian troops had been provided for. The Ukrainian Government refused to recognize the step taken by Bessarabia.

According to the terms of the Brest treaty the Baltic Provinces Esthonia and Livonia were to remain under Russian sovereignty, but three weeks later Germany began intriguing for a union of these countries with the Kingdom of Russia. The falsity of the assertion that the people of Esthonia favored a Baltic monarchy was exposed by the following protest of the Esthonian Provisional Government, published April 22:

Regarding the communication from Berlin that the joint Landtag of Esthonia, Livonia, Riga, and Oesel has decided upon the separation of Baltic provinces from Russia and the creation of a Baltic monarchy in personal union with Prussia, I declare, as representative of the Esthonian Republic, that this resolution does not constitute an expression of opinion of the Esthonian people, but only that of a German nobility minority and its adherents.

On May 5 the British Government informally recognized the Esthonian Provisional Government and, in the words of Mr. Balfour's communication, reaffirmed their readiness to grant provisional recognition to the Esthonian National Council as a de facto independent body until the peace conference, when the future status of Esthonia ought to be settled as far as possible in accordance with the wishes of the population."

On April 26 Transcaucasia declared its independence under a conservative Government, headed by M. Chkhemkeli.

Count von Mirbach, the Royal German Ambassador to Russia, accompanied by a Turkish representative, arrived in Moscow on April 23. He was welcomed by the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee as "a representative of a power with which a peace treaty has been concluded at Brest-Litovsk, as a result of which peace, so needed by the people, was established between the two States." Pravda, the official Bolshevist daily, greeted the Royal German Ambassador as "the plenipotentiary of an armed band which with limitless audacity oppresses and robs wherever it is able to thrust in with a bloody imperialistic bayonet."

Germany has shown eagerness to obtain the release and the use of the able-bodied German prisoners who are now in Russia. It is believed that there are at present upward of 1,000,000 German prisoners of war in European Russia and Siberia. It was reported on April 27 that a special German commission had arrived in Moscow to take charge of the exchange of prisoners with Russia, and that exchanges of invalids had already begun. The number of Russians in German hands is estimated at 3,000,000. An earlier official German communication explained the delay in repatriating Russians by the lack of transportation facilities.On April 29 the State Department at Washington gave out the following statement:

The Department of State has learned that there will shortly leave for Russia a German commission, consisting of 115 members, which will take up the question of the exchange of Russian and German prisoners. It is reported that it is the purpose of the commission merely to present to the Russian authorities an ultimatum from Germany requiring, first, the immediate release of all German prisoners who are in good health; second, that those who are ill will remain in Russia under the care of neutral physicians, and, third, that the Germans on their side will release only those Russian prisoners in Germany who are invalids or who are incapacitated. In the event of a refusal on the part of Russia, Germany will order that Petrograd be taken.

Upon the heels of this ultimatum came another one, served on the Council of the People's Commissaries by the German Ambassador, Count von Mirbach. According to a dispatch, the new ultimatum, too, dated May 10, had a bearing on the prisoner question, but in addition demanded complete cessation of arming troops and the disbandment of units already formed. This demand produced an unusual stir in Russia. The Commissaries held an extraordinary session at which the situation created by the ultimatum was discussed. The Bolsheviki showed no intention of complying with the German ultimatum.

On May 12 Foreign Minister Chicherin instructed the Russian Ambassador, M. Joffe, at Berlin to "try to obtain from Berlin cessation of every kind of hostility." The Germans had announced their intention to capture Novorossiysk, on the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea, under the pretext that the Russian warships, which had escaped seizure at Sebastopol and which are stationed at Novorossiysk, constituted a danger for the German vessels. The instruction added that the German invasion of Russian territory was causing much unrest in the country.

On April 18 the State Department at Washington announced that, according to an authentic report, the Teutons intended to dissolve the Ukrainian Rada and set up a Government of their own. On April 24 a Ukrainian financier prominent in aiding the Germans was arrested in the name of "the Committee of Ukrainian Safety." The German Vice Chancellor, Friedrich von Payer, in his speech before the Main Committee of the Reichstag, said that this secret organization aimed at driving the Germans out of the country and was even planning the assassination of all German officers. It included a number of prominent Ukrainians, several Ministers of State among them, and held its meetings at the house of the Minister of War. An investigation was demanded by the German Ambassador, but the Rada took no action.

Two days later General von Eichhorn, Commander of the German Army in the Ukraine, proclaimed "a state of enhanced protection," making all offenders of order subject to the jurisdiction of German court-martial. He had previously issued a field-sowing decree, necessitated, as the Germans explained, by the fact that the Rada had taken no measures concerning the field sowing, without which the country could not meet its treaty obligations relative to the delivery of grain to Germany. On April 28, while the Rada was in session, German troops entered the hall and arrested a number of its members, the Minister of War among them. The next day a number of landowners and rich peasants who were holding a convention in Kiev declared its sessions permanent, voted the dissolution of the Rada as well as the cancellation of the order convoking the Constituent Assembly on May 12, and proclaimed General Skoropadsky Hetman (Supreme Military Chief) of the Ukraine.

The Rada ceased to exist. It had but scant support in the country. A creature of the Teutons, it was supported by their armed forces. It proved unable to secure the delivery of the promised foodstuffs to the Central Powers. Owing to the resistance of the population only 3,000,000 poods (pood, 36 pounds) were delivered to the Teutons, instead of 30,000,000 poods, which the Rada undertook to supply. The Germans then withdrew their support. According to variousreports, the German agents took an active part in the overthrowing of the Rada.

Speaking of the fall of the Rada, the German Vice Chancellor said that "stubborn adherence to communistic theories that have gained no sympathy among the peasant population, which is attached to the soil, seems to have been principally responsible for bringing about its end." One of the first acts of the new Government was the restoration of private ownership of land. The new régime has many features of an autocratic rule. The following information regarding the extent of the Hetman's powers is furnished by the German Service of Propaganda:

The Government power in its entire capacity belongs to the Hetman for all the territory of the State. The Hetman ratifies the laws, he appoints the President of the Council of Ministers, he is chief director of the relations of foreign affairs of the Ukrainian State, he is Generalissimo of the army and of the navy, he declares war, proclaims martial law and exceptional laws. In the administration of justice he has the right of pardon and commutation of sentence.

It has been pointed out that, while the reconstructed Ukrainian Government is emphatically and avowedly pro-German, some of its leading spirits are Russian patriots and advocates of a union with Russia. Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich is said to have taken an active part in the coup d'état. A dispatch, dated May 10, announced the beginning of peace negotiations between Russia and the Ukraine.

United States Minister Morris at Stockholm cabled to the State Department on May 14:

Swedish press reports from Moscow state that Count von Mirbach recently transmitted to the Commissariat of the People a note formulated as an ultimatum and demanding the immediate effecting of certain financial measures which would practically make Russia a German colony. The chief points of the note were the immediate solution of the question regarding the exchange of prisoners, the complete abolishment of armaments, and the dissolution of units formed recently; also the occupation of Moscow and some other large Russian cities.

On the same date it was reported from Moscow that the Germans had captured Rostov-on-Don, thus gaining control of the Caucasus, the grain districts in the Donnetz Basin, and the coal, iron, and oil fields. Northern Russia was thus cut off from the Caucasus, excepting for a single railroad running through Tsaritsin, in the southern part of the Government of Saratov, which the Germans were threatening.

The dispatch continued as follows:

The Governmental power in its entire Government, with which it had made peace, is regarded by North Russia as a step toward its occupation. Within a few weeks the future of Petrograd and Moscow probably will be determined, as it is considered that the Soviet Government either must submit to German domination or retreat eastward and prepare for a defense against the invaders. Effective resistance will be difficult without outside assistance, because of the lack of technical experts and supplies. The bitter feeling against Germany is intensified by the ruthless seizures in Ukraine, and a growing disposition to accept allied aid if the Entente Allies will recognize the Bolshevist Government is evident.

The Commissariat of Commerce on April 10 gave the following summary of what Russia lost by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk:

The lost territories used to yield an annual revenue of nearly $425,000,000 and boasted 1,800 savings banks.

Speaking on Dec. 5, 1917, before the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets on the subject of the right of constituents to recall their representatives, Nikolai Lenine, the head of the proletarian Government of Russia, made the following remark: "The State is an institution for coercion. Formerly it was a handful of money-bags that outraged the whole nation. We, on the contrary, wish to transform the State into an institution of coercion which must do the will of the people. We desire to organize violence in the name of the interests of the toilers." The April issue ofCurrent History Magazinecontained a general outline of the manner in which the makers of the social revolution applied this principle of Statehood to the solution of various problems of home government. The present article will deal more in detail with some of the acts of the Bolshevist legislators. There is no better way of gaining an insight into the views and intentions of the present rulers of Russia than to study the abundant output of their legislative machinery.

Lenine's Government has worked out an elaborate scheme of State control over national production and distribution as a preliminary step toward the complete socialization of the country's industry and commerce. The semi-legislative, semi-executive organs created for that purpose form an intricate hierarchy of affiliated elective bodies and corporations of a large and ill-defined jurisdiction.

In the first place, there have been instituted so-called Soviets of Workmen's Control, (decree of Nov. 27, 1917.) These are made up of representatives of trade unions, factory committees, and productive co-operatives, and aim at regulating the economic life of industrial plants using hired labor, the control in each enterprise being effected through the elective bodies of the workmen, together with the representatives of the salaried employes. The executive organs of the Soviets of Workmen's Control have the right to fix the minimum output of a given firm, to determine the cost of the articles produced, to inspect the books and accounts, and, in general, to supervise the production and the various business transactions. Commercial secrecy, like diplomatic secrecy, is abolished. The owners and controlling agencies are responsible to the State for the safety of the property and for the strictest order and discipline within the precincts of the establishments. The local Soviets are subordinated to provincial Soviets of Workmen's Control, which issue local regulations, take up the complaints of the owners against the controlling agencies, and settle the conflicts between the latter.

The Central All-Russian Soviet of Workmen's Control issues general instructions and co-ordinates the activities of this controlling system with the efforts of the other administrative organs regulating the economic life of the country.

The members of this central institution of control, together with representatives from each Commissariat (Ministry of State) and also expert advisers, form the Supreme Soviet (Council) of National Economy, instituted by the decree of Dec. 18, 1917. This body directs and unifies the work of regulating the national economy and the State finances. It is empowered to confiscate, requisition, sequestrate, and syndicate various establishments in the field of production, distribution, and State finances. The Supreme Council is divided into several sections, each of which deals with a separate economic phase. Among other tasks devolving upon these sections is the drafting of the law projects for the respective Commissariats. Bills affecting national economy in its entirety are brought before the Council of the People's Commissariesthrough the Supreme Council of National Economy.

On Jan. 5, 1918, the Institute of Local Soviets of National Economy was created, "for the purpose of organizing and regulating the economic life of each industrial section in accordance with the national and local interests." Affiliated with the local Soviets of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, they are subject to the authority of the Supreme Council of National Economy. They are made up of representatives from trade unions, factory committees, workmen's co-operatives, land committees, and the technical personnel of industrial and commercial establishments. The inner organization of these bodies is elaborate. There are sections, divisions, (of organization, supply and distribution, labor, and statistics,) and business offices.

Here are some of the functions of these Soviets. They must:

1. Manage the private enterprises confiscated by the State and given over to the workmen, such as, for instance, a number of factories in the Ural mining district.2. Determine the amount of fuel, raw materials, machinery, means of transportation, labor, &c., needed by the given industrial section, and the amount available in it.3. Provide for the economic needs of the section.4. Distribute the orders for goods among the individual enterprises and work out the basis for the distribution of labor, raw material, machinery, &c.5. Regulate transportation in the section.6. See to it that all the productive forces should be fully utilized both in industry and agriculture.7. Improve the sanitary conditions of labor.

1. Manage the private enterprises confiscated by the State and given over to the workmen, such as, for instance, a number of factories in the Ural mining district.

2. Determine the amount of fuel, raw materials, machinery, means of transportation, labor, &c., needed by the given industrial section, and the amount available in it.

3. Provide for the economic needs of the section.

4. Distribute the orders for goods among the individual enterprises and work out the basis for the distribution of labor, raw material, machinery, &c.

5. Regulate transportation in the section.

6. See to it that all the productive forces should be fully utilized both in industry and agriculture.

7. Improve the sanitary conditions of labor.

The activity of the Soviets of National Economy is restricted to the field of industry. Their counterpart in agriculture are the so-called land committees.

The decree relating to agrarian socialization, voted by the Bolsheviki at 2 A. M., Nov. 8, 1917, recommends the use of a certainnakaz, (mandate,) based on 242 resolutions passed by village communities, as a guide in putting the land reform into practice. Article 8 of thisnakaz, which is a paraphrase of the agrarian program of the Social Revolutionists, reads thus: "All the land, upon confiscation, forms a national agrarian fund. The distribution of the land among the toilers is taken care of by local and central self-governing bodies. * * * The land is periodically redistributed, with the growth of population and the rise of the productivity of agricultural labor."

For the purpose of putting this program into operation and regulating the economic life of the village generally there have been instituted land committees, (decree of Nov. 16,) one for each volost, (rural district including several villages.) They are to be elected by the population of the district and exist as separate institutions, or function as an organ of the volost zemstvo, wherever this is found. The duties of a land committee are many and complex. It takes inventory of all the land in the district and allots to each village its share of plow land, meadows, and pastures, seeing to it that the land should be equitably distributed among the individual toilers and correctly tilled. It grants lease of lands and waters, not subject to distribution, receives the rent and turns it over to the national fund. It regulates the supply and demand of agricultural labor, takes charge of the forests, fixes prices of timber, receives and fills orders for fuel from the State, and takes the necessary measures to preserve the large, scientifically conducted agricultural establishments.

The delegates of a number of volost land committees, together with representatives of the local zemstvo and the Soviet of Workmen's and Soldier's Delegates, form a county committee. The latter, in its turn, sends a delegate to the Provincial Land Committee. The Main Land Committee, which heads the whole system, is an independent institution on a par with the central State organizations. It is a large group of people, consisting of the Commissariat of Agriculture, together with representatives from the following bodies: The Commissariats of Finance, Justice, and Internal Affairs, the provincial LandCommittees, the All-Russian Soviet of Peasants' Deputies, the All-Russian Soviet of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, and the political parties.

The Bolsheviki have been careful to extend the abolition of private land ownership to city real estate. By a special decree they abrogated the property rights in city land and in those of the city buildings whose value, together with that of the ground they occupy, exceeds a certain minimum, fixed in each municipality by the local authorities, or which are regularly let for rent, although their value does not exceed the minimum. The land and the buildings are declared public property. The dispossessed owners retain the right to use the apartment they occupy in their former property, provided the apartment is worth no more than 800 rubles of rent per annum. In case the value of the apartment exceeds this maximum the former owner pays the difference to the local Soviet of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates. All the rent which formerly went to the landlord is now paid to that institution or to the Municipal Council. Not more than one-third of the sum thus collected is to be used to meet the various needs of the community; 10 per cent. of it goes to the national housing fund; the rest forms the local housing fund for erecting new buildings, laying out streets, and making other improvements.

Municipal socialization of land values, while manifestly intended to benefit the poorer classes, directly affects all the elements of the city population. Other measures enacted by the Bolsheviki are restricted to the proletariat, and properly belong to the field of specific labor legislation. Thus, a law has been passed limiting the working day in both industrial and commercial establishments to eight hours, and further regulating the work of women and children. Furthermore, a minimum wage of the hired workers has been fixed in each section of the country. But by far the most radical and characteristic innovations launched by the Bolshevist Government in this line of legislation are those relating to compulsory insurance of workmen.

On Dec. 29 there was created the Institute of Insurance Soviets, with an executive organ in the form of a Chamber of Insurance. It is the intention of the Government to introduce compulsory insurance for laborers against sickness, unemployment, invalidism, and accidents. The regulations published so far relate only to the first two forms of insurance. The respective decrees rule that throughout the territory of the Russian Republic all hired workers, without distinction of sex, age, religion, nationality, race, and allegiance, are to be insured against sickness and unemployment, irrespective of the character and duration of their work. Salaried employes and members of liberal professions are not subject to this regulation.

At the moment the workman is hired by the employer he automatically becomes a member of two fraternities. In the event of his illness, one furnishes him free medical aid and a weekly allowance equal to his wages; the other assures him the equivalent of his wages if he loses his employment and becomes an unemployed workman. The latter term the law defines as "any able-bodied person depending for subsistence chiefly upon the wages of his (or her) labor, who is unable to find work at the normal rate of remuneration fixed by the proper trade union, and who is registered in a local labor exchange or trade union." The workmen contribute no dues to the fraternities. The income of the latter consists mainly of the payments made by the employers. The owner of an establishment using hired labor must contribute each week to the health insurance fraternity 10 per cent. of the sum he pays out as wages, and at least 3 per cent. of the same sum to the unemployment insurance fraternity. The administrative machinery of this novel form of insurance is worked out with much detail.

It is natural to ask how the various institutions described above are working, if they are functioning at all. It isclear that the smooth working of a great number of cumbersome and wholly novel administrative agencies in a body politic torn by an unprecedented social upheaval amid the horrors of a twofold war would be little short of a miracle. Moreover, it appears that the Bolsheviki have already grown disappointed in some of their political dogmas, notably in the unrestrained and ubiquitous application of the elective principle. Nevertheless, the query, in its entirety, can hardly be adequately answered at present. The time is not far off, however, when it will be possible to say whether the measures decreed in the name of the dictatorial will of the Russian proletariat have taken root or—and this alternative is more probable—whether they have remained merely codified day-dreams.

In the press of the United States on May 4, 1918, there appeared a notice that President Wilson had given audience to the Lithuanian delegation, recognizing the Lithuanians as a distinctively separate race having rights of self-determination.

At the time of the upheavals in Russia, during the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, Lithuanians, irrespective of political affiliations, held a convention in their capital, Vilna, over 2,000 delegates participating, where they unanimously asserted their right of self-government; also expressing a strong desire to form one political body with their half-brothers, the Letts.

Again in October, 1917, a convention was held in Vilna with about 250 delegates from those parts of Lithuania occupied by German forces, to press their claim of independence for Lithuania. In January, 1918, representative Lithuanians assembled in the same city proclaimed independent Lithuania. Another convention of Lithuanian representatives from Russia and from Lithuanian communities in the United States, England, and Argentina, held in the same month in Stockholm, Sweden, approved the act of their countrymen under German domination. On March 13 and 14 American Lithuanians held a convention in New York City, giving their unanimous approval to the proclaiming of an Independent Lithuanian Republic; here a unanimous resolution was passed protesting against any Polish aspirations or claims to Lithuania, and demanding the inclusion of the Lithuanian part of East Prussia, with the old Lithuanian city of Karaliauchus (Königsberg,) in the Lithuanian Republic.

Lithuanians claim those parts of the neighboring provinces where their language is spoken and where the inhabitants consider themselves Lithuanians. They claim the eastern part of East Prussia—about 13,500 square miles, with 700,000 or 800,000 inhabitants—and parts of the provinces of Minsk and Vitebsk; thus the Lithuanian-Lettish Republic would stretch over 131,000 square miles and have a population of over 11,500,000, inhabiting five centres—Karaliauchus, (Königsberg,) Klaipeda, (Memel,) Libau, Windau, and Riga.

The country is very rich for agriculture, though it contains much undeveloped land, with many rivers, lakes, and large forests. Along the River Nieman in Druskeniki, Government of Goodns, and in Birchtany, Government of Vilna, there are salt springs of high healing qualities, but on account of a corrupt Russian Government they remain undeveloped and unexploited. The seabeach around Palanga, a little distance above Germany's border on the Baltic, could be turned into another Atlantic City, according to the opinion of experts, but the place remains neglected. Lithuania's soil is very rich in aluminium and in material for manufacturing glass. During my last visit to Lithuania, in 1914, the discovery of radium was reported inthe vicinity of the mineral springs at Birchtany, but the war came on very soon and nothing further was heard of it.

BRITISH LEADERS ON LAND AND SEA

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