THE TREATY OF BREST.

A telegram from Petrograd, of yesterday’s date, states that the Russian delegation at Brest-litovsk has signed the disastrous treaty which Bolshevik madness and German greed have combined to force upon Great Russia. In a telegram sent from Petrograd at 5.50 on Saturday evening, Reuter’s correspondent states: The following telegram of today’s date has been received from the delegation at Brest-litovsk: “To Lenin and Trotsky, Petrograd. – As we anticipated, deliberations on the peace treaty are absolutely useless. They could even only make things worse in comparison with the ultimatum of Feb. 21, and might assume a character leading to the presentation of another ultimatum. In view of this and of the refusal of the Germans to cease their military action until the signature of peace, we have resolved to sign the treaty without discussing its contents and to leave after the signature. We have therefore requested a train to be put at our disposal, and we count on signing the treaty today and leaving afterwards. The most serious aggravation in the demands as compared with those presented on Feb. 21 is the following – to detach from Russian territory the regions of Kardakhan, Kars and Batum on the pretext of the right of people to self-determination.” Thus Germany utilises the situation to blackmail Russia still further. The Kars province has an area of 7,200 squares miles and down to 1878 formed part of Turkish Armenia. In 1828 the Russians took the great fortress of Kars from the Tasks, but returned it. In 1855, during the Crimean War, it was again captured after a heroic defence, in which British officers had a great share. During the Russo-turkish War of 1877 the Russians once more captured it, and it was ceded to the Tsar under the Treaty of Berlin. Batoum, the second port on the Black Sea, and the outlet for the vast petroleum industry of the Baku region, was also ceded to Russia by Turkey in 1878, as was also Kardakhan, 45 miles north-north-west of Kars. The Bolsheviks continue to issue eloquent “calls to arms,” and, despite the action of their representatives at Brest, appear to be doing their best to organise something like defence. They have, for example, called up all the officers and instructors of the old army, forgetting that these men have been cruelly degraded in the eyes of their former subordinates, and have lost all their authority. The Social Revolutionary party, the opponents of the Soviets, have adopted a resolution describing the acceptance of the German peace terms as “a blow struck at the Russian Socialist Republic,” calling on all workmen, soldiers and peasants to take up arms, and refusing to be bound by the Bolshevik peace treaty.