Dec. 9.
'THE situation regarding Russia as it exists to-day in the Far East is quite without historical parallel. There have been more adventurous voyages, no doubt, in time past than that of Admiral Stark and the fugitive men-of-war from Vladivostok; that for instance, of Odysseus. But in Homer's day adventure was not complicated by the existence of international law. Looking back on the Allies' relations with Far Eastern Russia, they could claim justification for going into Siberia in the danger that the Germans might come along the railway and possess themselves of the piles of munitions at Vladivostok: but why they or any of them remained there after Germany's defeat is less easy to explain. The Japanese, by remaining at Vladivostok are morally if not legally responsible for the safety of Admiral-Stark and his companions, who would have been red or dead years ago if Japan had not maintained a barrier behind which the Whites played at keeping a government. But Japan. has refused, to allow the ships to stay in any of her ports, which explains why they are now here; and by the letter of the Jaw Japan may claim to be as much justified in passing them on as General Ho Feng-ling is in telling them that they cannot enter the ports of Woosung or Shanghai. In the north we hear that China is disarming numbers of refugee White soldiers who are crossing her frontiers. She is perfectly right in doing so, but her action appears to carry with it some obligation to intern them afterwards and provide for their maintenance. She could, no doubt, treat the ships in the same way, but equally there can be no doubt that she does not want the expense of doing so. The alternative is to tell them to go elsewhere. But if they refuse to obey, China, unlike Japan, has no means of forcing them.
International law on the point of what may be done in a neutral port for a belligerent vessel is clear enough. No. more than three of such vessels sailing under the same flag may be admitted into the same neutral port at the same time, and there are certainly more than three Russian ships at Woosung. If they are damaged they may be repaired sufficiently to make them seaworthy, but not to increase their fighting strength: the distinction in this respect will be seen to be clear and logical on a moment's reflexion. Otherwise they may remain only for twenty-four hours and if they need fuel and provisions, they may be supplied only with enough to carry them to the nearest port of their own country. In Admiral Stark's ease that would simply mean sending them back to Vladivostok. Meanwhile it isan interesting point whether they can be considered as bond fide belligerents. Moscow would call them rebels and, if it were recognized, might apply to China to hand them back as being in unlawful possession of stolen property. Admiral Stark and his fellows would, of course, argue that they were political agents, using the ships to overthrow a Government which they did not acknowledge which contention, however, would be, and indeed is in their present position, complicated by the fact that there is no longer any White Government for which they can claim to be fighting. And finally it may be remembered that while none of the Powers are technically at war with Bolshevist Russia except possibly France, none of them recognize her, and are therefore, we suppose, scarcely. called upon to decide whether she is in a state of civil war and how, accordingly, they shall comport themselves to either party engaged in it.
Still, the awkward fact remains that there is 2 quantity of more or less valuable property in the shape of a number of ships, which, like Noah's dove, can find no rest for the sole of their foot, and might at any moment create most difficult questions with Moscow, in which she would appear likely to have all the right on her side. A similar question is almost certain to arise before long in respect of the Russian Volunteer Fleet, whose directors, on the overthrow of Petrograd, fled first to Constantinople, then to Paris and have managed to keep their ships out of the claws of the Reds by the legal fiction that Russia is where the Russian White Government sits, Which Government has, as stated above, palpably ceased to exist. The best course for Admiral Stark and his fellows would be, perhaps, to throw themselves on the mercy of Hongkong or the Philippines whose authorities might be able to arrange a guarantee for their safety if they returned to Vladivostok. The Bolshevist Government in that port is obviously very anxious to make a good impression on the outside world and to prove that its regime is founded on peace and order and equal opportunity for all men of good will; and even the butchers of Moscow seem for the moment to have slaked their thirst for blood. It is difficult to believe the reports of either party as to what is happening in Russia, but there is at least some reason for thinking that the: orgy of blood and political proscription is over and that enough of sanity prevails to enable Russian refugees in general to do better for themselves and for Russia in their own country than by hanging miserably about the purlieus of Hongkew, or, in the case of Admiral Stark's ships, drifting on from port to port until, weed-bound and foul, they rust to bits on some unclaimed atoll of the South Seas. Vladivostok has nothing to gain by their death and much to gain in moral repute by treating them with
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.