LENIN’S PLOT FOR THE BETRAYAL OF RUSSIA.
BERLIN ACCEPTS TRUCE “NEGOTIATIONS BEGUN.”
According to Krylenko, the ensign (second lieutenant) who has been appointed as the Bolshevik Commander-in-chief, the Germans have officially agreed “to enter on negotiations for an armistice on all fronts.” Krylenko – whose real name is said to be Aaron Abram – has ordered the immediate cessation of shooting on the whole Russian front. Reuter’s correspondent states that Krylenko’s envoys – who entered the German lines on the front of the Russian Fifth Army – were a Hussar lieutenant (whose name is given as Schneur, which is not a Russian name), a military doctor, and a volunteer. A companion of Krylenko telegraphs that the German Commander-in-chief deputed the commander of the Northern Army as his plenipotentiary. The latter’s answer was received on official Government paper. Krylenko proclaims that General Dukhonin is the enemy of the people, and orders the arrest of all his supporters, whatever may be their position or their past record.
The precise location of the Russian Fifth Army is not stated, but it is believed to be the one holding the line in the Baranovitchi sector south of Vilna.
Last night we received the following message transmitted through the wireless stations of the German Government:
Trans-ocean Press. – Prefatory to our report of the Chancellor’s speech we give an extract intended to call attention to its great importance:
The Russian Government sent out yesterday from Tsarskoe Selo wireless station a telegram signed by the People’s Commissary for Foreign Affairs, M. Trotsky, and by the chairman of the Council of the People’s Commissaries, M. Lenin, addressed to the Governments and the peoples of the belligerent countries. In this telegram it is proposed that negotiations concerning a truce and general peace be opened at an early date.
Gentlemen, I do not hesitate to declare that in the proposals of the Russian Government, so far as is known, the debatable principles on which the opening of negotiations may be based can be recognised, and that I am ready to enter upon such as soon as the Russian Government sends representatives having full powers for this purpose. I hope and wish that these efforts will soon take definite shape and bring us peace.
We follow with sincere sympathy the farther developments of the sorely tried Russian people. May a speedy return to ordered conditions be granted them. We desire nothing more than to be able to return to our old neighbourly relations, particularly in the economic domain.
As regards the countries formerly subjected to the sceptre of the Tsar, Poland, Lithuania, and Courland, we respect their people’s right of self-determination. We expect that they shall give themselves a constitutional form corresponding with their conditions and the tendency of their Kultur. In these matters, however, things are still entirely in the air.