War flares again in the east

The protocol to the German peace treaty, defining explanations of the treaty agreed to, was laid before the Senate today by Vice President Marshall. Among the provisions in the protocol is one requiring the Germans to transmit to the Allied and associated governments, within one month after the treaty becomes effective, a list of persons who are accused of having committed acts in violation of the laws and customs of war.

Another paragraph provides for the appointment of a commission to supervise the destruction of the German fortifications. Provision is also made that proceedings be taken against persons who committed punishable offenses in the liquidation of property in the Allied countries, and the protocol says the Allied and associated powers will welcome information or evidence the German government can furnish on the subject.

Romania has served an ultimatum on the Hungarian government, making demands far in excess of the armistice terms. The ultimatum stated that if the Hungarians refuse to accept the terms laid down the Romanians would take possession of all material and animals required to repair the damage inflicted by the enemy upon Romania.

The fear was expressed in conference circles that Romania's action would result in the overthrow of the new Hungarian government. The Romanian army is refusing to take orders from the Allied Central command. The Romanians have not been actively participating in the Peace Conference since their government, some time ago, took exception to the decision of the conference upon the principle guaranteeing the rights of minorities within national boundaries.

In their ultimatum Romanians demanded the reduction of the Hungarian army to 15,000 men in the surrender of 50% of the harvest animals and farm machinery and 50% of the railway supplies.

Meanwhile, it is reported that Romanian military authorities have requisitioned all automobiles in Budapest, including those of the Hungarian Ministers. A Romanian general has been appointed commander of the city and has ordered that the Red Guard police be disarmed. The Romanian commander openly flouted the Hungarian War Minister, saying that he now was commander in Budapest and that all Hungarian officials were now civilians in his eyes.

Railway cars are stopped at eight o'clock in the evening. The few workmen who were unable to return home at night, had been shot while attempting to pass Romanian patrols.

A French regiment is arriving shortly, and it is expected that they will confront the Romanian troops, who have requisitioned all food stocks in the Hungarian capital for themselves.

A wireless dispatch from Budapest reports that the city was bombarded before the Romanians occupied it. There were many arrested yesterday at Budapest, according to advances from that city. All those arrested, shown to have been connected with the Soviet system, were imprisoned.

The new Hungarian government has said they are willing to observe the terms of the armistice and have asked that each of the great powers send a regiment to Budapest to bring the Romanians into check. However, it is impossible for the Allies to comply with this request, as the troops are not available. Small detachments however, will probably be sent with the generals composing the inner Allied commission to arrange an armistice between the Hungarian government and the occupying Romanian troops.

Members of the American peace delegation expressed fears that the setting up of a stable democratic government might be jeopardized by the Romanian attitude. Vigorous representations, it was said, are being made to Romania, both in Bucharest and Budapest, but means of communication are so bad that Peace Conference officials have been unable to learn if their messages are reaching the Romanians.

The Hungarian government has fallen, and Archduke Joseph has established a ministry in Budapest. Reports received at the Peace Conference state the Romanian forces have crossed the Danube into the business section of Budapest and were seizing supplies, preparing to ship them to Romania.

Other acts charged against the Romanians are assault upon the inoffensive persons and forced entrances into houses everywhere in Budapest under the pretext of searching for arms. The Romanian army is reportedly living on the country, seizing the food, wildlife stock, farming implements, rolling stock and food Ð they are being sent to Romania, although Budapest is on the verge of starvation.

The food situation in Bucharest has become critical because the most productive food territories and Hungary had been cut off from the capital by the Romanian advance. Peasants are reported to be hunting down communists who have fled to the country from Budapest, it being alleged that they are incited in this work by the Romanians. Moving courts are touring the provinces and trying communists. An appeal has been posted all over Hungary calling upon peasants to arrest communists who are charged with murder and not permit them to reach Austria, where they will be sheltered.

Archduke Joseph was the commander of Austrian-Hungarian forces on the southern sector of the eastern battlefront during the first two years of the Great War. In 1918 he had a movement looking to secure independence for Hungary from Austria, and when the collapse of the first dual monarchy came in November, 1918, he was asked by Emperor Charles of Austria to take charge of the situation and find a solution for the political crisis before the country. With his son, Archduke Joseph Francis, he took the oath to submit unconditionally to the orders of the Hungarian National Council and later took the oath of fidelity to the new government. Last April it was reported that he had been executed by the communists at Budapest, but this report was properly denied.

Charges have been raised that Turkish officials decimated the Greek population along the Black Sea coast. 250,000 men, women and children living near Sinope, were "parboiled" in Turkish baths and then turned out without clothes to die of pneumonia or other ills in the snow of winter.

The worst of the crimes were committed in the winter of 1916 and 1917 when orders were issued for the deportation of the Greeks along the Black Sea coast. The people are crowded into the steam rooms of Turkish baths under the pretense of sanitary regulations and after being tortured for many hours were turned out of doors into snow almost knee deep without lodging or food. Their garments, which had been taken from them for fumigation, were lost or stolen. Most of the victims, ill clad and shivering, contracted tuberculosis and other pulmonary diseases and died in swarms on the way to exile.

In the province of Boafra, where there were more then 29,000 village Greeks, now less than 13,000 survive and every Greek settlement has been burned. The number of orphans, including some Armenian and Turkish children, in the entire district is said to exceed 60,000.

Meanwhile, it is reported that the Bolsheviks have killed at least 310 Persian subjects in Armenia, 270 of whom were Mohammedans and 40 Christians. When the anti-Bolshevik volunteer army evacuated Armavir, in the face of the oncoming Bolshevik army, the Bolsheviks called out the town leader, and shot him down and mutilated his body with swords and bayonets. The Bolsheviks then herded together all the Persians who had taken shelter under the protection of a Persian flag and shot them down in mass with machine guns and left them to rot in the heat.

In a letter sent to the Senate, from Davis Arnold, managing director of the American committee for relief in the near East, Arnold states that it is imperative that Turkey, both European and Asiatic, be policed by foreign troops, preferably American, before any actual partition of the country takes place.

He says, "if that this is not done there will be wholesale massacres. For humane reasons," he said, "the United States should accept the mandate for all Turkey." He believes 100,000 Americans could police both European and Asiatic Turkey and keep the country in order for two years or until local conditions are stabilized. With 400,000 to 500,000 Armenians now in Russia Armenia will undoubtedly starve or be killed if the British leave without other foreigners entering to act as a police force, as Armenia is being oppressed equally by the Turks, Tarters and Kurds.

These people surround the Armenians on all sides, persecute them and will not permit through to reach them. The 40,000 children now being fed by Americans must invariably starve if no foreign police force is to be provided. Even the British protection and relief workers lost 20% of their foodstuffs in transportation. There are probably another half million Armenian fugitives in southern Russia who want to return home, but cannot do so.

Romanian troops agreed to leave Bucharest, in consequence of the notes sent to Romania by the Allied Central command. A statement attacking England and America, demanding that Hungary be united with Romania under the sovereignty of King Ferdinand and threatening to strip Hungary if the Romanian army is forced to withdraw from that country has been presented to Archduke Joseph, head of the Hungarian government, by the authorized Romanian representative at Budapest.

Claiming that they are trying to defeat Bolshevism, the Romanian note further stated: "There are 250,000 workmen in Budapest who are only waiting for the Romanians to leave Hungary to immediately take the situation into their own hands, which would mean the return of Bolshevism. The uncaring government cannot depend upon the Allied powers for assistance, for those powers have withdrawn troops from Russia and America is unwilling to send a single soldier. We do not trust the Allies, which want to humiliate us. We are willing to withdraw our troops, if necessary, but we will carry off everything and strip the country just as Field Marshal MacKensen did to Romania."

"The only grudge the Allies have against us is that we refuse to have English and American capital dominate Romania. Hungary must follow Romania's policy in not accepting English and American capital. Whatever would remain after the Romanian retreat would be taken by the Allies anyways. The Allied idea is to have Romanians and Hungary fight and destroy each other, the Allies thereby getting all."

"There is only one policy for Romania to pursue, that is a junction between Hungary and Romania, rule by the remaining King. We do not care what the Allies want to do or is doing. We will follow our own policy."

Meanwhile, the Romanians, according to reports from Bucharest, are stripping the country and seizing the railway and transportation lines. Supplies of all kinds are in readiness to be moved out of the country. The Romanians have taken flour and sugar from warehouses and even threshing machines working in the harvest fields, and seized food and medical supplies from hospitals.

President Wilson and administrative supporters in the Senate will come to close grips this week with the proponents and reservations to the covenant of the League of Nations; finesses being employed in the preliminaries by both sides to the controversy.

The announcement that President Wilson will never consent to textual changes in the treaty that some senators at first blush to think that possibly all negotiations looking to compromise were off, until they figured out that there is a difference between textual amendments - which are not proposed by a working majority - and reservations, which the presidentÕs supporters in the Senate think they may find acceptable in the end.

Textual amendments, it was explained, would necessitate sending the treaty back to the Peace Conference. Some of the proposed peace treaty changes include:

1 - That whatever the two-year notice of withdrawal from the League of Nations had been given by the United States, as provided in Article 1, the United States shall be the sole judge whether all its international obligations and all its obligations under the covenant shall have been filled at the time of the withdrawal.

2 - That the suggestion of the Council of the League of Nations as a means of carrying the obligations of Article 10 into effect are only advisory, and that any undertaking under the provisions of Article 10, the execution of which may require the use of American military or naval forces or economic measures, can, under the Constitution, be carried out only by the action of Congress, and that the failure of the Congress to adopt the suggestions of the Council of the League or provide such military or naval forces or economic measures shall not constitute a violation of the treaty.

3 - The United States reserves to itself the right to decide what questions are within its domestic jurisdiction, and declares that all domestic and political questions relating to its internal affairs, including immigration, coastal traffic, tariffs, commerce and all other purely domestic questions are solely within the jurisdiction of the United States, and are not by this covenant submitted in any way easy to arbitration or to the consideration of the Council or the assembly of the League of Nations or to the provisions or recommendations at any other power.

4 - The United States does not bind itself to submit for arbitration or inquiry by the assembly or the Council any question which is the judgment of the United States depends upon or involves its long-established policy known as the Monroe Doctrine, and it is preserved unaffected by any provisions in the said treaty.

These four points above the main objection, which has been urged against the League of Nations.

Romania will not be permitted to strip Hungary, according to the draft of the supreme council's reply to the last note from Bucharest. The Romanian government was informed that the fixing of the amount of reparations to be made by Hungary, as well as its distribution, is a matter under control of the Allied and associated powers, and that until final decision is reached all war, railway and agricultural material in Hungary and subject to distribution will be under the common administration of the Allied powers.

The supreme council insists on the fact that the final recovery of war, railway and agricultural material, cannot occur at present. According to the principles of the Peace Conference accepted by the Allies it is the right of the assembly of the Allied and associated powers alone to fix the reparations to be made by Hungary. Neither the Romanian army nor the Romanian government has the right itself to fix RomaniaÕs share, assets of all kind belonging to Hungary being a pledge held by the Allied Powers in general.

Delivery of the Romanian note, in which the Bucharest government claims that the Romanians, in confiscating property in Hungary were merely getting back Romanian property and insisted that the armistice of November, 1918 no longer exist, and that Romania considered herself still at war with Hungary. They state that the Hungarian Archduke is violently hostile towards the Romanians, and as commander of the Austrian Hungarian troops in Transylvania, he permitted the soldiers to commit atrocities on the Romanian people. When there was talk of disposing King Ferdinand, the Archduke was the principal Austrian candidate for the Romanian throne.

Before the Bolshevists abandoned Riga they murdered most of the civic leaders, played machine guns on the persons in one prison and sacked the homes of the wealthy. The inhabitants of Riga however were heartened by the arrival of American supplies and turned on their oppressors and were now hunting down the Bolsheviks and executing many daily.

A large radical element however, is left in the population, and failure of the authorities to provide food until the city can get on its feet again might lead them, with the assistance of the Bolsheviks still in hiding, to attempt another uprising.

Before the Bolsheviks abandoned the city they opened the doors of one prison and drove the prisoners into the yard, where machine guns were played upon them. The bodies of seven clergymen and a number of women were found when the troops entered the city.

Under the Bolshevik reign occupants of handsome residences were moved into slums and hordes of ruffians invaded richly furnished apartments. Houses of the wealthy were ransacked and furniture, clothing and jewelry shipped into the interior.

To be well dressed in Riga today is dangerous. A grim local saying is "if a man is well-dressed he is a Bolshevik; if in rags, he is harmless."

The Bolsheviks divided the population into three classes for distribution of food. To receive daily ration, applications had to be made for cards, but as applicants were often thrown into prisons instead of receiving cards, many were frightened into staying away and starving.

Feeble men and women stood in line for hours to receive their rations, and often there was no bread for weeks. When there was any extra food, such as meat, fats or vegetables, Bolshevik commissioners were the only ones to benefit. No food was to be had in the open markets.

As the Bolshevik food supplies were insufficient, the inhabitants either starved, or if they had property, exchanged jewelry or clothing for bits of food smuggled into the city by the peasants from the country. Exorbitant prices were demanded. Bolshevik currency, printed in vast quantities, was thrown about in the streets, being practically valueless.

Even with the arrival of the American supplies food conditions were distressing. 'Roof Rabbits' - Bolshevik for house cats - are bringing almost prohibitive prices, as they are virtually the only form of meat available.

Almost 187,000 persons, nearly 15,000 of whom are seriously ill from typhus, effects of starvation and other causes - are receiving a meal a day from fifteen American kitchens, while American bread is being distributed from 90 depots. With an epidemic of dysentery feared, American medical experts are studying the situation to decide what foods are most urgently needed.

Curious crowds still gather on the waterfront watching white flour unloaded from American ships of the American relief administration. Women and children in warehouses pinch flower from the floor and eat it raw from the fingertips. After five years of war and Bolshevik rule the population has been reduced from 12,000 to 4,000.

The entire text of the Austrian counterproposal to the Allied peace terms, which the Allied delegates are still keeping strictly secret, and to which they expect to make the final reply within a few days, are voluminous.

The Austrians argue every point in the peace treaty thoroughly. The Austrians claim that the treaty, as drafted, is declared utterly unacceptable. The German-Austrian government dislikes to sign engagements which surely are impossible of fulfillment. These terms mean ruining collapse of Austria, but if it is necessary she will, of course, submit.

Austria hopes to be allowed to join the League of Nations immediately after the treaty is signed. The Austrians claim that the new frontiers will adjust and deliver many German-Austrians to other states. The election showed that 33% of the voters in Bohemia, 20% of those in Moravia, and 66% in Silesia are Germans. Many million Germans are shut within Czechoslovakia. A plebiscite is requested in certain communities, which are purely German to allow the people to decide whether they do not prefer the former part of German-Austria. These communities are necessary to the revitalization of Vienna.

The Austrians say they are grateful for the inclusion of the District of western Hungary within the new Austrian boundaries, but would prefer that a plebiscite be held in those districts so that the people themselves could decide.

After citing the name of the patriot Andreas Hofer, the Austrian reply ventures to protest that the old spirit of Hofer will rise and shake off the yoke of the peace treaty, the weight of which is an insult to the mountain people, who are jealous of the independence of their Fatherland. According to the treaty provisions regarding nationality, some former Austro-Hungarians will belong to several nations at once and others to no nation at all.