many we will stir up England and France and then America, and compel them, too, to come into the conference and talk peace with us. I shall never sign anything but a democratic peace," Trotzky added. And, as a matter of fact, Trotzky never did sign the Brest-Litovsk treaty. At that time I thought I understood this extraordinary young Jew, 38 years old, highly educated, and the greatest stump speaker in all Russia. But he has the weakness of the prima donna. In hours of success he is elated and defiant and in hours of defeat depressed and moody. I have never seen such extreme ego and arrogance as is the case with Trotzky. I knew that he would prolong that conference as long as he possibly could because it afforded the greatest opportunity his ego had ever known. He knew that so long as it lasted he would be the centre of the world's attention. Trotzky said to me that he knew that Germany could never make a democratic peace, for such a peace, he said, could mean but one thing, and that was the end of the militarist class. LOSS OF RUSSIAN GUNS A proposition made by Trotzky to enlist the aid of the American Railway Commission at Nagasaki to get the Russian guns away from the front over the Trans-Siberian Railway ultimately failed, and these guns fell into the hands of the Germans. After the gun incident, [said the witness,] there came a time when it was believed that any association with the Bolsheviki was wrong and an order came from the Government telling me to cease dealing with them. I showed the order to Ambassador Francis and he disapproved it and told me to continue, and I did, and until I left Russia I was the unofficial medium through whom Mr. Francis had his communications with the Soviet Government. On one occasion I may state that Ambassador Francis instructed me to inform the Bolsheviki what measures he would recommend in the event of hostilities. Colonel Robins also told of the mission to Russia of R. H. Bruce-Lockhart, who was sent by Lloyd George to see and consult with Colonel Robins about the situation there. Lockhart, Dr. Harold Williams, the newspaper correspondent, and Mr. Stephens, head of the National City Bank Branch in Petrograd, all came to view the conditions with Colonel Robins's eyes. The witness told of a proposition that he and Bruce-Lockhart had submitted to Lenine to get Russia back into the war. He said: This was in March, 1918, before the ratification of the Brest-Litovsk treaty, when I told Lenine that the Allies might consider aiding the Soviet in return for a repudiation of the treaty and for active co-operation in a military way against Germany. I asked him to postpone the meeting of the all-Russian Soviet until the Ambassadors of the Allies could communicate the proposition to their Governments, and, as a matter of fact, the meeting was postponed for two days. Lenine came to Moscow and informed me that the Allies had refused to sanction the proposition. With the ratification of the treaty my relationship with the Soviet changed. I realized then that we could not recognize them even as a de facto Government. But we continued to do what we could to save the situation even at that late day. I worked constantly under the direction of Mr. Francis, and finally I was asked to transmit a request through Mr. Francis asking permission for a Russian economic mission to visit the United States. So far as I know the request transmitted by the Ambassador was not even answered. REPUDIATION OF DEBTS Colonel Robins said that when the Bolsheviki issued the decree repudiating the Russian national debt he went to Trotzky and denounced the act, which was directed not so much against the United States and Great Britain as against France. Lenine said it was issued because of the refusal of the Allies to co-operate with the Bolsheviki. The Bolsheviki would probably have been willing to make an arrangement for settling with England and America, but were bitter against France, arguing that "French loans had for forty years kept Russian autocracy in power." Colonel Robins told how Elihu Root, head of the Russian Mission. had been stabbed in the back by editorials written in this country and translated into Russian by German agents--editorials which pictured Mr. Root as "the jackal of Wall Street," the tool of interests, and thoroughly against the people in every way. These editorials, written originally by a man perhaps the most gifted in his particular line in the world, com bined with cartoons conveying the same idea, impressed the poor Russian deeply, 66 with the inevitable result. Similar distorted views of America, he said, were disseminated by the return to Russia of agitators from this country, some Gentiles, others Jews. But neither Lenine nor Trotzky, in his opinion, had ever been conscious German agents." An Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs ramed Zolkan, proved to be pro-German and anti-American, had been dismissed by Lenine. When the Germans menaced Petrograd, furthermore, $180,000,000 in gold and specie had been sent to South Russia for safety and had been captured by the Czechoslovaks. Nevertheless, Colonel Robins denounced Bolshevism as "the greatest menace now facing the world." In his concluding testimony, given on March 7, though referring to Bolshevism as "the beast," the witness maintained that the Russians should be left to settle the thing their own way. He opposed allied intervention. At times Colonel Robins defended the Bolsheviki to the extent of expressing a disbelief in the stories of atrocities told by other witnesses, some of them Federal officers who left Russia months subsequent to Colonel Robins's departure. At one point Colonel Robins denounced atrocities which he believed had been committed by the Czechoslovaks. He said that these troops had captured villages and then lined the people up against the wall and shot them down in cold blood, without even the formality of trial. When Senator Nelson asked Colonel Robins what the nature of his "mission" in this country was at the present time, Colonel Robins indignantly denied that he was engaged in any support of any kind for Bolshevism here or elsewhere. PEASANTS AND LAND Testifying as to the contentment of the Russian peasant class under Soviet rule, the witness said it was only reasonable to suppose, since, the peasants for the first time enjoyed the fruits of the land without having to pay rent, that they would defend the Soviet which had given them that land. He scouted the suggestion that the Bolsheviki repre sented a centralized oligarchy, explaining that every decree must be ratified by the All-Russian Soviet and the Executive Committee, the last named the body that elects the Commissaires. to the charge that Lenine and Trotzky represented a dictatorship, he said: As In a talk I had with Lenine I remarked that many considered him a dictator who was retaining control by force. He replied that under existing conditions it was necessary to use force to an extent, and added that he was a dictator for the reason, as he put it, that I have behind me the mass will of the people." The moment he lost that support, Lenine said, he realized his power would be gone. When the people cease to support Lenine and Trotzky they will be driven from power. The theory of the Soviet Government is that every three months the AllRussian Soviet must meet and pass on the decrees of the Commissaires. So if a majority against Lenine and Trotzky should be in the All-Russian Soviet that majority would elect other leaders. This is one way to change the Government. The other way is by force, and there are 12,000,000 rifles in Russia and machine guns, too. Asked if he had been into the Russian villages and seen these rifles and machine guns, he replied that there had been rifles in towns that he had visited, but that he knew that counter-revolts had been repelled by the local populations, and not by rifles sent from Petrograd and Moscow. He had no knowledge of the truth of the report that many Russians would have joined the forces of the Czechoslovaks if they had had guns and ammunition. The witness made it clear that he believed neither in recognition of the Soviet Government nor in intervention, but that he thought the actual conditions under the Bolshevist régime should be thoroughly investigated by a special commission. It was necessary, he said, first to know the disease before seeking to apply the cure. Intervention had strengthened Bolshevism in Russia. He was opposed to the use of troops based upon a false judgment of the facts. BOLSHEVISM A DISEASE Questioned about the allegations of treacherous attacks upon the Czechoslovaks by the Bolsheviki, he replied: I refuse now and for all time to be placed in the position of defending mur der, violence, or the commission of other atrocious acts. Here in America I have found a bitter resentment against the revolutionary Government in Russia, a resentment much more bitter than was that entertained here against Black Mondays under the Czar. I find the atrocities of the Bolsheviki denounced more bitterly than are the atrocities that were committed by the Czechoslovaks when they took whole villages and stood the people up and shot them down without trial. This form of resentment won't answer the challenge of Bolshevism. Asked again if he considered Bolshevism a menace to the whole world, he reiterated his belief as follows: The menace of the age. The question of recognition does not rest on the character of a Government. Whether or not it is the Government of a people is the only question for a foreign Government to decide. I am opposed to blinding ourselves as to actual conditions in Russia. My whole contention is that we are dealing with a disease, and that we should try and find out what the disease is. RUSSIAN WITNESS HEARD Colonel Robins was followed by Gregory A. Martiushin, who was Vice President of the first All-Russian Soviet and is now in this country as a commercial representative of the anti-Bolshevist Government of Northern Russia. He left Russia six months after Colonel Robins did. In practically every instance he differed with Colonel Robins as to the state of affairs in Russia, and declared that far from supporting Bolshevism the great mass of peasant Russia was sick and tired of Bolshevism and praying for its downfall and the institution of a constitutional Government patterned after the Government of this country. Mr. Martiushin had left Russia on Nov. 2, 1918. In answer to questions by Senator Nelson, he said that he was the son of a peasant and the grandson of a serf. In the first All-Russian Soviet, of which he was the Vice President, he was delegate of the peasants of the Province of Kazan. Under the Czar he was twice exiled, on each occasion for a period of five years. At the time of the Bolshevist revolution he was an executive officer of the Central Committee of the Cooperative Organizations of Russia. There are, or were, he said, 45,000 of these cooperative societies with a total peasant membership of about 20,000,000. Mr. In answer to questions as to the atrocities committed by the Bolsheviki, Mr. Martiushin said it was impossible to give the number of persons who had been murdered. He named many of his friends who had been killed, and gave the places where they were killed and the dates. One of the men starved to death was Repin, the famous artist. No man could give a true picture of the horror and terrorism that had cursed Russia during the last eight months. PEASANTS ANTI-BOLSHEVIST Practically the entire membership of the co-operative societies, he said, was anti-Bolshevist and pro-ally, and the organization was being persecuted in every way possible by the Bolsheviki. The great majority of the peasants were now against the Bolsheviki. So bitter were they that they were retaliating by planting small crops and refusing except under compulsion to deliver supplies of any kind to the Bolsheviki. In the Moscow district only 3 per cent. of the industries were being operated when Mr. Martiushin left, and these were not running at full capacity. Shipping on the Volga, Oka, and other rivers was a thing of the past. Dora Kaplan, the woman who attempted to assassinate Lenine, was subjected to a new form of torture before she was executed. By order of the Bolsheviki her guards were instructed not to permit her to sleep. For days she was kept awake, and then was executed without trial of any sort. Mr. Martiushin said that the official Bolshevist reports indicated the extent of the executions taking place in Russia. In one province in one month these reports admit the execution of 800 people out of 6,200 who were arrested. In another report it is stated that 620 out of 1,500 arrested were executed. In Jaroslav for July the reports admit the execution of 300 men, and in Perm for the same month of fifty members of the bourgeois class. Mr. Martiushin corroborated the testimony of Roger Simmons of the American Embassy in every detail regarding the forcible control of rural Soviets. "I am a Slav," said the witness. "Most of my life I have been in Russia, and I think I know my country perhaps better than some people who go there and remain only a few months." ANSWERS COLONEL ROBINS Colonel Vladimir S. Hurban, Military Attaché of the Czechoslovak Legation, issued a statement in answer to Colonel Robins's charges against the Czechoslovak forces in Russia. The statement says in part: Colonel Robins stated: "The Soviet Government granted free passage to the Czechoslovaks through Archangel and Murmansk, not through Siberia." This is incorrect. The Czechoslovak National Council, of which I was a member at that time, made an agreement with the Soviet Government on March 26, 1918, guaranteeing the passage of our army through Siberia. We desired to prove our neutrality in the civil war and our loyalty to the Soviet as the de facto Government by disarming, and we disarmed. This circumstance is the best proof of our loyalty. Archangel could not be considered because the port was frozen, and the northern regions could not feed an army of 60,000 men. Concerning Colonel Robins's remark that "every one is telling of how the Bolsheviki are terrorizing and shooting people, but nobody says anything about the terror caused by the Czechoslovaks in shooting the Bolsheviki," Colonel Hurban said: With all firmness I reject this general accusation, and I reject the comparison with Bolshevist tactics. The Bolsheviki admit terror officially as a weapon against their adversaries. We disclaim any terror. Colonel Robins must know that thousands and thousands of Red Guards had been captured and disarmed by us, but were not punished or interned in camps, but released to go home. Germans and Magyars in the Red Army were not considered by us as fighters for Russian Soviets, but as our old enemies. It would be naïve and academic if 1 were absolutely to deny that some of our soldiers in different places did unlawful things. No army chief can deny this of his army. Put everything was done by our command and our volunteer soldiers themselves to avoid or diminish and punish such cases. In a letter to The New York Times of March 10, 1919, Mme. Catherine Breshkovsky denied the truth of the assertions made by Colonel Robins concerning the Czechoslovaks in Russia and their methods against the Bolsheviki. Colonel Robins in his testimony had referred to Czechoslovak "atrocities," citing among others the lining-up of inhabitants of villages and relentlessly shooting them down. Mme. Breshkovsky, on the contrary, after recounting in detail the circumstances leading to the march of the Czechoslovaks across Siberia, which she had witnessed, declared that they had been hailed as deliverers by all and "esteemed as brave warriors, most perfect gentlemen, and splendid citizens." They were admired especially for their humanity, their sense of honor. She had never, she declared, heard a complaint against them, never a derogatory remark. "All intelligent Russians are proud to have them as brothers," said Mme. Breshkovsky, adding in conclusion: "If a man, called as a witness, can in⚫ sinuate about and slander a whole people and a whole army, known well to all the Russian people as the model of honor and humanity, what credit can be given to all the assertions made by him at second hand, or even, as he says, from his personal knowledge?" DAVI AVID R. FRANCIS, the American Ambassador to Russia, told the story of Russian Bolshevism to the Senate committee on March 8. He was in the witness chair all day and corroborated in every essential detail the narratives of other witnesses who had told about terrorism, murder, rapine, and outlawry in Russia under Lenine and Trotzky. Ambassador Francis said that he had been in Russia from April, 1916, until the first part of January, 1918, when, because of failing health, he went to London, where he underwent a major operation. It was apparent that he had not entirely recovered from the effects of his illness. After a brief account of his arrival in Russia and his first meeting with Foreign Minister Sazonoff and the imperial family, Ambassador Francis said: I had been in Russia but a short time when I saw that Germany enjoyed such a firm foothold in that country that, had war been declared five years later than was the case, it would have been impossible to dislodge the German grip on the empire. There were German spies in every part of Russia, both official and industrial Russia. The Grand Duke Nicholas has stated that German spies were so thick at his headquarters that it was almost impossible to keep his orders in loyal hands. At the outbreak of the war Germany was in control of the chemical industry; she had two great banks under her domi nation. The glass, electric, and the sugar industries, and many others, were absolutely in German control. Her business spies were everywhere, in positions of great responsibility. We can understand the extent of German control when I tell you that of 1,500,000 enemy prisoners in Russia, not more than 250,000 were Germans, while of interned aliens, that is, business and professional men and the like, of the 300,000 interned more than 250,000 were Germans. May I add that practically all of the business that Russia had with America had also been conducted through German agents? I found in Russia that this state of affairs was everywhere, and it continued to exist even after Russia went to war with Germany. The conditions were most deplorable and in consequence I pleased when the first revolution took was place, and the Czar abdicated, and the Provisional Government came into power. AFTER TWO REVOLUTIONS On March 22, 1917, the State Departnent recognized the new Provisional Govrnment. Ambassador Francis established close official and personal relations with the Government, and these relations were maintained during the eight months that followed. Narrating the subsequent course of events, he said: Then, in November, came the collapse of the Kerensky régime and the installation of the so-called Bolshevist Government. I did not establish relations with that Government. As a matter of fact, I have never had any relations whatever with it, and have always recommended against the extending of any recognition to it. The old Provisional Government had called an election for a Constituent Assembly, which was held, and the Assembly was to have convened Nov. 27, 1917. When Lenine and Trotzky gained control they postponed the meeting until December. When this was done all the Ministers of the old Government, with the exception of Kerensky and Milukoff, who had escaped, were prisoners in the Fortress of Peter and Paul. To revert for a moment to the régime of Kerensky and Milukoff. The first act of that Government had been to issue what was known as General Order No. 1. That order demoted all army officers to the rank of enlisted men, and authorized the soldiers to elect by vote the new officers to command them. Gutchkoff, who was the first Minister of War in the Provisional Government, had informed me that this order was issued without his knowledges or consent. The result so far as discipline is concerned can be imagined. Now, Kerensky had been very popular. As Minister of Justice he had stated that no man could be punished without first having a fair trial, and, very deservedly, this greatly increased his popularity at first. Nothing like this had ever been said in Russia for more than a century. Soon the Bolsheviki began to show their heads. I went to Milukoff and told him that demonstrations against the Provisional Government should not be permitted. There had arisen a difference between Milukoff and Kerensky. KERENSKY'S MISTAKE Asked as to the reason for this dissension, Mr. Francis replied: |