"Pravda" the Russian journal, whose title may be translated as "truth," draws attention to the manners and morals of the officers. of the Red Army as leaving a great deal to be desired. These men are alleged, when in their cups, frequently to beat their wives, smash furniture in cafes and restaurants and molest other guests. The newspaper demands that vigorous steps shall be taken to force the officers to mend their ways, and holds out the manners and morals of the White Russian district, where officers are forbidden by ukase to beat their wives, as a model for other military districts in the Soviet Union. For the sake of the poor women who suffer from the brutality of their drunken spouses it is hoped that something will be done. There are some types of people who when in drink cannot refrain from brutality. This is all the more likely to be the case in a country which has been brutalized for the past two decades, during which a new generation has grown up Which knows nothing of the finer behaviour of other days and other nations. It is obvious that in a country, where life and personal liberty is so lightly regarded, and where the Red Army is lauded to the skies as the possible saviours of the country, it is inevitable that such practices should occur, and it is somewhat astonishing that "Pravda" should have dared so to offend the Soviet military clique by such open reference to their behaviour. There may be some amongst such officers who will resent the fact that their beating of their wives comes in for severe criticism, for there are still husbands in the world who adhere to the belief that they can thrash their wives at will. That the commander-in-chief of the White Russian district is not of that idea is apparent from the "Pravda's" report, for he Ñas definitely forbidden the practice, but it indicates a very alarming state of affairs when it transpires that the practice was so common as to necessitate the issuance of a ukase forbidding
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.