In the Bobrinsk district entire villages have been set afire and plundered. In the village of Buda a Uhlan patrol extorted a contribution of several thousand rubles, and, when the peasants had paid part of it and were unable to pay more, the Uhlans surrounded the village and bombarded it.

In other villages peasants, women, and children who endeavored to escape from fires were pursued by Uhlans and cut to pieces with swords or flogged with whips. In one village an old Jew was first flogged and then hanged in the presence of all the villagers. Most savage acts were perpetrated in Jewish villages. All persons suspected of belonging to the Bolsheviki and those in military uniforms were immediately shot.

In Finland the Germans helped the White Guards to suppress the revolution, and strengthened their grip on the country. Some of the captured Red Guards were shot—7,000 were reported executed on June 6—others were to appear before twenty-one specially created courts. The reprisals of the White Guards were directed particularly against the Russians in Finland. A Russian wireless, dated May 14, contained the following statements: "Even 12-year-old children have been shot. At Viborg one witness saw 200 corpses, mainly Russian officers and mere schoolboys. According to other witnesses, more than 600 persons were executed in two days." The German headquarters in Finland estimated the number of persons massacred at 70,000. The Finnish High Court of Justice ordered the arrest of all Socialist members of the Finnish Diet. In contravention of the Brest-Litovsk treaty, the German commander demanded the control of the Russian war supplies at Helsingfors, which were valued at 150,000,000 rubles.

On June 12 the Finnish Government introduced into the Diet a bill providing for the establishment of a monarchic form of government in Finland. The Finnish King, who is to be a hereditary ruler, shall be invested with broad powers regarding treaties with foreign States, and shall have the absolute veto in several important matters.

The new Finnish Government is emphatically pro-German. This was illustrated by the membership of the new Cabinet formed by Paaskivi. There were signs, however, that anti-German sentiment was developing among the masses of the people. General Mannerheim, Commander of the White Guard, resigned late in May, apparently as a protest against the Germanization of the Finnish Army. This army is now commanded by German officers. The Germans also took over the control of the Finnish Military College, and undertook to organize the Finnish coast fleet. They are constructing two railways in Northern Finland.

In the middle of May the White Russian Republic was proclaimed with the consent of Germany. The new Government seemed to favor a union with Lithuania, under the military protectorate of Germany. On June 4 it was reported that the new republic had been recognized by the Ukraine.

Early in May the Tartar National Council met at Bakhchisaray, Crimea, and issued a statement protesting against the entrance of the Austro-German troops into the Crimea. The council declared that the Crimea, whose population is 70 per cent. Tartar, intends to maintain its complete independence till conditions in Russia grow more settled.

According to a London dispatch, dated June 7, fierce fighting was going on between the troops of the Caucasian Government and the Turks. These are reported to have massacred 10,000 Armenians in a fortnight. The Government had ordered the mobilization of all men between the ages of 19 and 42.

ALLIED INTERVENTION

The subject of allied military intervention in Russia for the purpose of freeing the country from German domination attracted a great deal of attention in June. The allied Governments did not define their attitude toward this matter, but it seemed certain that the United States did not favor sending an interallied military expedition into Russia. Japan refrained from any action in this direction. The only measure it took was to enter into an agreement with China for the protection of the general peace in the Orient from possible German and Bolshevist aggression. The principal clauses of the military treaty between China and Japan, signed May 16, 1918, are in substance as follows:

The two Governments, with a view to warding off the danger constituted for them by the penetration of German influence toward the eastern frontier of Russia, have decided to regulate their conduct in regard to the enemy by placing themselves in agreement on a footing of perfect equality, and in according each other mutual aid in that region where their common action is to be exercised.

The Chinese authorities will facilitate the task of the Japanese authorities, who will be enabled to conduct the transport of troops and establish in the occupied territories works which shall be removed at the conclusion of military operations, and, moreover, undertake to supply war material and munitions, as well as engineers and a medical staff and other necessary specialists.

The Japanese must in return respect Chinese sovereignty and local customs, and will evacuate Chinese territory as soon as the operations are terminated. The agreement will automatically cease to be valid as soon as the state of war between the two contracting parties and the Central Powers is terminated.

One article of the agreement provides that Chinese troops may be employed outside the national territory, and another stipulates that the two Governments shall come to an understanding with the Chinese Eastern Railway Company if this railway should have to be used during the course of the operations.