Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 266, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1917 — RUSS OUTCAST IF SHE QUITS [ARTICLE]

RUSS OUTCAST IF SHE QUITS

ALLIES MAY LABEL HER UNFRIENDLY IF TUETONS BENEFIT BY FLOP. Officials of the government regard the Boshelviki move for an armstice between Russia and her enemies and the opening of immediate peace negotiations as an act that would place Russia almost in the list of unfriendly nations. Press dispatches telling of the peace movement were confirmed by a cablegram from Ambassador Francis at the State Department. It is said that Leon Trotzky, national commissioner for foreign affairs in the Boshelviki government had sent formal/Notification to diplomats at Petrograd that his government had proposed an armstice with a view of immediate peace negotiations. It was pointed out that should these negotiations be successful, it would be most difficult to deal with Russia as a neutral country in view of the position she has held as an ally of the nations fighting Germany and the marked advantage in the war that such course might give the latter country.

Ambassador Francis has been given no instructions to deal with the Boshelviki government. In reporting to the state department on the peace move, he made it clear that he had not formally acknowledged the receipt of the Trozky note. He said that he had been advised that the Soviet congress has adopted a resolution instructing generals at the front to enter into negotiations at once with the German commanders relative to a three months’ armstice with instructions to report to the congress. Reports that Russia was seeking peace and created the greatest interand every dispatch from Petrograd was analyzed during the day with the hope that some promise might 5e found that Russia would continue the fight against the common enemy. Ambassador Francis’ dispatches, dated November 21, apparently dispelled any hope of a strengthening of Russia’s resistance unless the Bolseviki government should be quickly overthrown by a counterrevolution. O- ■ — o London, Nov. 23.—Lord Robert Cecil, minister of blockade, in his weekly talk today with the Associated Press, spoke of the proclomation issued by Nikolai Lenine and his followers in Russia, •, urging immediate armstice, saying: ‘ “If it represents the real opinion of the Russian people, which I do not believe it does, it would be a direct breach of treaty obligations, and Russia’s alliance.- Such an action, if approved and ratified would put them virtually outside the pale of civilized Europe.”