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Show SSILNER DEFENDS IWENtlCf Jritish Cabinet Minister Tells Why Troops Were i Sent Into Russia. Vecessary to Combat Hun Activities, He Tells Parliament. LONDOX, "Wednesday, Dec. IS. In reply to a letter received from a correspondent, corre-spondent, Viscount MUner, the secretary secre-tary for war, gives the reasons why British troops were sent to Russia. The cabinet member goes over tho situation crcad by the success of the Bolsheviki , i ijaining control of Russian affairs, Tf'. , points out how their acts were ad- f sely affecting the cause of the allies j tho west and otherwise hampering j winning of the war by the allied , ions. I 'You ask me." 533-5 Viscount Milner ! his letter, "what right we ever had; send British troops to Russia to med- with the internal aifnirs.of that: lntry, and how long we mean To ke'cp : em there now that the war is over? i and Fleet to Germans. ' '' The situation itself snows that-you j isapprehend the facts of the case as 2)1 as the motives of thegovernment. le reason why allied, not merely Until Unt-il forces indeed, the British are only small proportion of the allied troops are sent to Russia, is that the Bolshe-ki, Bolshe-ki, whatever their ultimate object, are, in fact, assisting our enemies in - ery possible way. It was owing to eir action that hundreds of thousands German troops were let loose to hurl em selves against our meu ou the west-n west-n front. Jt was owing to their be-ayal be-ayal that Rumania, with all its rich sources in grain and oil, fell into the nds of the Germans. "Jt was they who handed over the ;ack sea fleet to the Germans, and bo treacherously attacked the Czecho-ovaks Czecho-ovaks when the latter only desired to t out of Russia in order to fight for 0 freedom of their own country in irope. The allies, every one of them, sre most anxious to avoid interference Russia, but it was an obligation of tnor to save the Czecho-Slovaks, and was military necessity of. the most gent kind to prevent those vast por-ons por-ons of Russia which were struggling escape the tyranny of the Bolsheviki om being overrun by them, and so viw open a source of supply to tho my- intervention Successful. "I say nothing of the enormous quantities quan-tities of military stores, the property of the allies, which were still lying at Archangel and Vladivostok, and which were in course of being appropriated 1 by the Bolsheviki ana transferred to tho Germans until the allied occupation put an end to the process. ' ' And this intervention was successful. success-ful. Rioting was stopped. The Czechoslovaks Czecho-slovaks were saved from destruction. Thn resources of Siberia and southeastern southeast-ern Russia wero denied to the enemy. Then the ports of European Russia were prevented from becoming bases for German submarines, from which our North sea barrage could have been turnpd. ''These were important achievements aod contributed materially to the defeat de-feat of Germany. "I say nothing of the fact that a vast portion of the earth's eurface and millions of people friendly to the allies have been spared the unspeakable horrors hor-rors of Bolshevik rule. But, in course of this allied intervention, thousands of Russians have taken up arms and fought on the side of the allies. How can we, 'rimply because our own immediate purposes pur-poses have been served, come away and Joaye them to tho tender mercies of their and our enomies before they had time to arm, train and organize so as to be strong enough to defend themselves? It would be an abominable betrayal, contrary to every British instinct or honor and humanity. Policy of Allies. J1 You may be quite sure that -the last thing the government desires is to leave any British soldiers in Russia a day longer than is necessary to discharge the moral obligations we have incurred, and that, I believe, is the guiding principle prin-ciple of all the allies. Nor do I myself my-self think that the time when we can wittKlraw without disastrous, consequences conse-quences is necessarily distant. But this is a case in, which more haste may be less speed. "If the allies were all to scramble out of Russia at onco, the result would almost certainly be that the barbarism which at present reigns in a part only of that country would spread over the whole of it, including the vast regions of northern and central Asia, which wero included in the dominion of the car. The ultimate consequences pf such a disaster cannot be foreseen, but they would assuredly involve a far groater strain on the resources of the British empire than our present commitments. commit-ments. ' 1 |