BOLSHEVIK DEFEAT.

FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. PETROGRAD, Monday Evening.

All Friday night and all Saturday a battle raged near Bieigorod between the shock battalions of the Bolshevik forces, consisting of bluejackets and an armoured train sent from the north by Krylenko, who during the battle arrived in person at Bielgorod, and a body of infantry from Kharkoff. The losses were heavy on both sides. According to the report of the Railway Union, the shock battalions were defeated. Cossack reinforcements from General Kaledin are on their way. The shock battalions declare that they were going to the Caucasus, according to the last instructions of General Dukhonin. I learn from a well-informed source that the Germans proposed to the Bolshevik delegates the following terms for an armistice, which I communicate under reserve: First. Evacuation of Petrograd by the Russians until the conclusion of a general peace, no provision being made as to whether the city shall or shall not be occupied by the Germans in the meantime. Second. A guarantee that the Baltic fleet shall not be used against the Germans, this guarantee to take the concrete form of dismounting the fleet’s guns. Third. The cession before the actual peace negotiations commence of the whole of the Ukraine to Austria, including the northern shores of the Black Sea. These proposals, extraordinary as they may seem, are not inherently improbable. They consort with the attitude generally maintained by the Germans to the Bolshevik delegates, and, since by the mere fact of the opening up of the negotiations the disorganisation of the Russian army has been enormously accelerated, it is a matter of minor importance to the Germans whether the terms be accepted or not. The references to a general peace make it clear that the Germans are fully aware of the advantages which their successes in Russia will secure to them when the time comes to meet all the Allies at a peace conference. There is a restless feeling in Petrograd this evening in anticipation of to-morrow’s opening of the Constituent Assembly. Still it is highly debatable whether the assembly will actually meet to-morrow. No arrangements for the opening session are announced. The Electoral Board, which was to have completed the arrangements, is now imprisoned in the Smolny Institute. Not more than 100 members have arrived in Petrograd. and so far the total number announced as elected is about 150, of whom the majority are Social Revolutionaries, while about forty are Bolsheviks and from twelve to fifteen Cadets. The City Council has arranged to celebrate the opening of the Assembly by a procession with music, but there will be little joy in the festival. To-day the Bolsheviks arrested ten members of the Council of the Ministry of Food Supplies. Disorganisation proceeds apace, and with a calculated method curiously un-russian.