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Show NEWS REVIEW OF CURRENT EMS Britain Hurrying to Put Up a Barrier Against Bolsheviki in the Caucasus. MAY REQUIRE 200,000 TROOPS Holland Unwilling to Surrender Former For-mer Kaiier for Trial Admiral Sims' Sensational Charges Against Navy Department Administration Organ Booms Hoover for President. By EDWARD W. PICKARD. Soviet Russia's threat against Persia, Per-sia, and consequently against all of southern Asia, as was foreseen, has so alarmed the British that they are hur- rying to the defense of their great interests in-terests in that part of the world. Naval Na-val forces from the Mediterranean already al-ready have been sent into the Black sea and troops, probably about 10,000 of them at first, may be dispatched to the Caucasus at once. Batum, at the eastern point of the Black sea, is their first objective, and from there they will undertake to occupy and hold the line of th'e Tiflis-Baku railway running to the Caspian. Georgia and Azerbaijan, Azerbai-jan, the two new republics which make up the peninsula between the Inland seas, have asked assistance against the soviet, forces, and the barrier against Trotzky's armies must be built there. According to dispatches from Paris the supreme council believes be-lieves that ultimately at least 100,000 troops will be needed In the Caucasus, and perhaps the estimate will be doubled dou-bled later. France, of course, because of her interests in Syria, is concerned only in a lesser degree than is Great Britain In the advance of the bolshevik! bolshev-ik! toward Asia Minor. As her share, it Is understood, France will relieve the British of all participation in the military work In the plebiscite area in Germany, the official announcement by Marshal Foci) being that the British troops are "not ready." They had been waiting at Cologne for months for this duty, however, so it Is fair to presume tiiat they will be hurried to the near East, The British already have small forces In Persia and have begun the organization of the Persian army, but the native troops cannot yet be counted count-ed on to any great extent. Aside from protecting her broad avenue to the Indian In-dian frontier, Britain is vitally interested inter-ested in saving the immensely valuable valua-ble oil fields of which Baku Is the center. cen-ter. Moreover, under the secret trenty negotiated last summer, Great Britain Is bound to protect Persia. Another move to check the bolshevik! bolshev-ik! Is reported from Warsaw, where It Is rumored that the Roumanians are preparing to occupy Odessa and organize organ-ize Its defenses against the soviet forces. Preceding these developments came the news that the supreme council had lifted the trade blockade against soviet Russia, and the bolshevlst leaders hailed this as a sure sign that the allies al-lies were about to make peace with them. Their belief appears to be unfounded, un-founded, though the disposition to withdraw from all intervention within the boundaries of Russia is growing mightily. Even the Japanese announce that they are about to quit Siberia, where, however, their protege, General Semenoff, has just declared himself supreme ruler because Admiral Kol-chak Kol-chak has disappeared. The Czechs are still along the trans-Siberian railway In the Lake Baikal region and bloody conflicts between them and the Semenoff Semen-off troops are said to be frequent. The essential weakness of the Kol-chak-Semenoff opposition to the bolsheviki, bol-sheviki, as of the movements led by Denlkine, Yudenitch and others, lies In the fact that all these leaders are recognized rec-ognized as representatives of the reactionary reac-tionary and monarchistic elements. I Tims they cannot hold the support of the great mass of the people, who. if not liolshevists. are social revolution-tits revolution-tits and social democrats. For this reason, too. the presence of the Japanese Jap-anese in Siberia lias been a constant source of trouble. Correspondents pay high tribute to General Graves for the way in which he has handled the American troops in Siberia in all this inlxup. The conference of the Baltic nations closed with the appointment of a commission com-mission to work out a plan for a defensive de-fensive alliance against soviet Russia. Contrary to expectations, there was not even discussion of the question of making peace with the bolsheviki. Lithuania wanted to form an alliance with Esthonia and Latvia against Poland, Po-land, and when this was rejected the Lithuanians virtually withdrew from the conference. It is intimated that Lithuania may make allinnces with both soviet Russia and Germany, which would make the position of Poland Po-land even more uncomfortable than it now is. Jugo-Slavia, at this writing, Is standing stand-ing pat on its claims to Fiume and its consequent refusal to. accept the settlement set-tlement of the Adriatic question adopted adopt-ed by Great Britain, France and Italy. It will hold to this position, said a Serbian diplomat, as long as President Wilson supported it, and would then be willing to submit the entire question ques-tion to the League of Nations. The supreme su-preme council on Tuesday sent a note to Belgrade which, it was said, gave the Jugo-Slavs four days to reconsider their refusal, and threatened that If they persisted the principles set forth in the pact of London would be applied to the territories in dispute. This is more even than Italy now is asking. The long awaited demand on Holland Hol-land for the surrender of the former German emperor was dispatched by the allies, and near the end of the week the reply was received by the supreme council. Though at this time the reply had not been made public, it was generally understood that In it Holland refused to give up the refugee for trial, considering that this is her international duty and bearing In mind the fact that the Dutch constitution forbids extradition. The Dutch' press denies that feelings of sympathy or antipathy have anything to do with the course adopted by the government. If the sanctity of William's refuge Is to be preserved one wonders how Lloyd George can carry out his pre-election promise to bring him to justice. The possibility of trying and condemning him by default has been considered. Politics, especially in a presidential election year, seizes on nearly everything every-thing for its own uses, and that is the fate that has befallen Admiral Sims' scathing criticism of the navy department depart-ment and its chief, Secretary Daniels. It is being treated as a partisan matter mat-ter by the senate, whose naval affairs committee has it in hand. The Republicans Repub-licans excepting Senator Borah are supporting the admiral, and the Democrats Demo-crats by the same token have rallied to the defense of Daniels. The most sensational charge made by Sims was that on his departure for England a high official of the department said to him : "Don't let the British pull the wool over your eyes. It Is none of our business pulling their chestnuts out of the fire. We would as soon fight the British as the Germans." Secretary Daniels flatly denies having hav-ing said this, or anything like it, and the admiral said he would tell only the committee the name of the man who did. More important was the general charge that Sims never was given whole-hearted and efficient support by the department in the prosecution of the war at sen, and that the cost of Daniels' policy, or lack of policy, was the loss of many lives and much shipping. ship-ping. All of this was contained In a letter from Admiral Sims to the department, de-partment, which the admiral made public pub-lic at the demand of the senate subcommittee sub-committee investigating the matter of naval decoration awards. The whole scandal will be given a thorough airing, air-ing, and the Republicans will not overlook the additional material it may give them for the campaign. The sensation of the week in domestic domes-tic politics was the announcement of the New York World that it was for Herbert Hoover for president, on any ticket, "on a platform representing the kind of government which Mr. Hoover has exemplified in his public career." Since the World has been the leading metropolitan organ of the Wilson administration ad-ministration this aroused great interest inter-est and some excitement in the Democratic Demo-cratic camp. The Important question, of course, was whether or not It meant that Mr. Hoover was the choice of Mr. Wilson. No one could answer this officially. of-ficially. Some of the Southern Democrats Demo-crats said they would not favor Hoovei because they considered him a Republican Repub-lican ; some of the members of the party from the West thought the farmers farm-ers would oppose him because he put a fixed price on wheat and let cotton soar, Mr. Hoover himself maintained a dignified silence. The secretary of the Bryan league says Colonel House is responsible for the Hoover boom. There has been some talk of Edward I. Edwards, the wet governor of New Jersey, as the Democratic nominee, and there, too, Mr. Bryan comes to the front. He says he would oppose any such movement and would not be a delegate to the convention if Nebraska should instruct for Edwards. Furthermore, Further-more, if Homer S. Cummings favors Edwards he will never again be national na-tional chairman of the Democratic party If Bryan can prevent it. So there ! While the federal prohibition agents are seizing millions of dollars' worth of liquors and the bootleggers on the borders bor-ders and the moonshiners everywhere are making small fortunes, one wisp of hope is held out to the wets. The Supreme court of the United States has granted to Rhode Island permission permis-sion to institute In that court original proceedings to test the validity of both the prohibition amendment to the Constitution Con-stitution and the Volstead enforcement act. The suit Is brftught by direction of the Rhode Island legislature, which refused to ratify the amendment. It Is alleged that the amendment is an interference in-terference with the state police powers and a violation of the fifth constitutional constitu-tional amendment, and is "usurpatory, unconstitutional and void." A generally overlooked feature of the prohibition law which is of immense im-mense interest .to thousands of property prop-erty owners was brought to public attention at-tention last week. This section imposes im-poses a fine of not more than $2,000 or a prison sentence of not more than ' two years on the owners of property upon which are displayed signs or posters advertising liquors which are intoxicating. The first cargo of radicals deported from the United States was landed In Finland and on Monday of last week the reds crossed the border Into Russia, Rus-sia, where they were greeted by boisterous bois-terous crowds of their brother bolshev-ists. bolshev-ists. Emma Goldman and Berkraan were the last to cross the frozen river between the two countries. Preparations Prepara-tions to send over a lot more of that Ilk are proceeding and arrests are of daily occurrence. In Chicago William Bross Lloyd, the millionaire communist, com-munist, and 34 of his fellows were Indicted In-dicted for conspiracy to overthrow the government. Despite the severest kind of criticism criti-cism from many eminent citizens of all parties, the majority in the New York assembly Insisted on the suspension of thefive Socialist members-elect, and they are now on trial before the assembly as-sembly judiciary committee, charged with disloyalty. Some of the best lawyers law-yers the Socialist party can boast are engaged In the defense, but the committee com-mittee excluded the New York City Bar association committee, headed by C E. Hughes, from Independent participation partici-pation in the proceedings. That association asso-ciation was among those that condemned con-demned the action of the assembly. Morris Hillqult, chief counsel for the defendants, said if the decision was against them it would "let loose the violent revotuDon which we Socialists have always endeavored to stem." Defeated for the presidency of France by Paul Descbanel, M. Clenien-ceau Clenien-ceau has retired from public life with the plaudits of his associates of the allied al-lied nations ringing In his ears. Mil-lerand, Mil-lerand, a strong man, succeeds him as premier and us president of the peace conference. Clemenceau's downfall was not surprising, for. despite his splendid conduct of affairs during the war, he had a host of bitter enemies in France. The new government does not hold out to Germany any hopes of more lenient treatment than did the old. |