Dec. 29.
THE important message from a Peking correspondent which Wwe print to-day describes a state of altairs in Siberia such as was only to be expected since misfortune began to lower upon Admiral Koltchak. So long as he made head against the Bolshevik army, the unpopularity of his government—which, be it said, never extended to the gallant Admiral personally—gave rise to no serious trouble. But with the actual fall of Omsk and before the expected fall of Irkutsk also, the long-felt antagonism to the reactionary elements with which Admiral Koltchak is said to be surrounded flared up in open disaffection. The retreat of a great army before a confident foe is never an easy business. In a country like Siberia, in the depths of winter, with but one slender line of railway on which to depend and all means of transport even on. that cruelly crippled by the general neglect and ravages of war, conditions must be terrible beyond all imagining. It is no wonder that the Russian generals are divided among themselves, that the Social-revolutionaries ery. for compromise with the Bolsheviks and that the Czechs, who in loyalty to their own officers and solidarity feel themselves the one stable element in prevailing chaos, lose patience with the disrupted Russian forces and take the law into their own hands.
With none to take effective command, the situation appears to be further complicated by the new ambitions attributed to Attaman Simionov. No one has forgotten the brave part played by this officer in the autumn of 1917 when, before the coming of the Allied expeditionary force, with a handful of men he strove to cut @ way along the railway for the retreating Czechs. Unfortunately, since those days, Simionov's conduct has not been in keeping with his earlier reputation. it is unfair in crises like that through which Siberia has been passing to lend too much attention to rumour. But there is no doubt that either Simionov's own ambition or the evil counsels of those about him have been a fruitful source of uneasiness. Not long ago he was credited with a scheme for
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.