Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-01-06 | Page 6 | Germans Attempt to Make a Secret Pact with Russ

GERMANS ATTEMPT TO MAKE A SECRET i PACT WITH RUSS j I LONDON, Jan. 5. Pending the re- sumption of conferences at Brest-Litovsk i today no fresh developments are reported ; from Russia regarding the peace negotiations. negotia-tions. Special dispatches from Petrograd report attempts by the German delegates , at Petrograd to make some sort of a j clandestine agreement with the members of the constituent assembly. The correspondent of the Daily News says that the Germans are trying, through la neutral diplomat, to get into communication communi-cation with members of the assembly. Their object ' is obvious, he adds, as the parties opposed to the Bolshevik 1 are quite ready id profit by the Bolsheviki refusal re-fusal to make peace and to tell Uie people peo-ple that the Bolsheviki promised them peace, but gave them war. The version of the correspondent of the Daily Mail is that the Germans have been putting pressure, direct or indirect, upon the government in connection with the summoning of a constituent assembly, assem-bly, as the Germans have been making it pretty obvious that they are unwilling to recognize the Bolsheviki as representatives repre-sentatives of a majority of the Russian people or even as temporary trustees of the sovereign power. The Daily News dispatch expresses fear that Germany will find the constituent assembly more amenable amen-able than the Bolsheviki in regard to making peace and quotes Foreign Minister Minis-ter Trotzky as saying that the bourgeoisie are prepared to give away half the country coun-try If they can obtain control of the government gov-ernment of the other half. Regarding the attitude of the Ukraine toward the Germans, the Daily News says that the rada is willing to strike a bargain bar-gain with the Germans. The Tetrograd correspondent of the Times, who is now in London, writes that the Ukrainians are determined to send a mission to Brest-!-itovsk not to negotiate a separate peace, but to ascertain Germany's intentions toward Little Russia. The Germans arc willing, he says, to recognize t lie rada on the basis that the Ukraine supply Germany with foodstuffs and recognize German economic interests in the Ukraine. Uk-raine. Neither of these points, the correspondent corre-spondent adds, is to Little Russian taste, but if the allies fail to help the Ukrainians Ukrain-ians or adopt a policy of compromise with the Bolsheviki the rada will have to yield, and the Cossacks, too. Newsnapers in Petros-rad continue to report lighting in the south, where, according ac-cording to the report of the Times, civil war is waging fast. The German-Austrian delegates in Pet-rocrad Pet-rocrad profess to have information that the allies have decided to break relations with Russia. Perhaps this is the reason why the officials of the British embassy have taken pains to assure Trotzky that the departure of Sir Georsre Buchanan is purely on account of ill -heal th and that he would have left last March but for the persuasion of former Foreign 'Minister Terestchenko. Trotzkv also was told that the other members of the embassy have no intention of leaving Petrosrrad at present. pres-ent. F. O. LSn-lley, counselor cf the embassy, em-bassy, remains in charge. Amidst the whirl of events In vol vine: the fate ef the nat ion. the Bolsheviki government has found time to rb free that Russia sh.il! pdopt nnon?tic spelling on I January 14. Three vowels an "I one con-Uonant con-Uonant were eliminated from tiVj Russian I alphabet.