FIGHTING IS EVERYWHERE

SOUTHERN RUSSIA, THREATENED WITH FAMINE,
revolts against the Soviets

PARIS, September 17. The Georgian revolution, which the Soviet troops are trying to stifle in blood, is taking on a dimension that could become singularly dangerous for the Moscow government. From Georgia, the troubles have spread to Azerbaijan, whose population was also to suffer the yoke of the Bolsheviks.

Azerbaijan. is the country of oil. Baku, its capital, is the well-known center of oil production. As will be seen from the dispatches below, the rebels have set fire to the wells and the city is in danger of burning down. Now the Soviet government had just reconstructed at great expense the exploitation destroyed during the civil wars of the last five years. It is on the export of oil that the Moscow Directory counts above all to obtain resources. On the export of oil... and on that of wheat.

For the rest of Europe is watching, indifferent, here and there interested, this paradoxical and immoral spectacle of a people threatened with famine from which its leaders tear its wheat to sell it abroad. Threatened with famine, Russia is threatened in the short term, this results from the state of the harvests and from the own admission of Mr. Rykoff, president of the Council of People's Commissars. "The calamity which is falling upon the people," he said, "is almost equal to that of the year 1921. At least eight million inhabitants will be affected by it."

The anger of the populations is expressed by armed revolt. Eastern Russia, the Crimea make common cause with the Georgians. There are troubles in Odessa and Sevastopol. The whole south of the former empire of the tsars is in turmoil. Perhaps the Red Army, the object of the constant care of the Muscovite Directory, is strong enough to drown the rebellion in blood. But its loyalty, as we know well in Moscow, is questionable. Trotsky's soldiers could well, one day, turn against him...

It will be noted that the workers of Baku have started moving because of the low wages they are given. Hey! What, wage labor still exists in the Socialist Republic? As for the peasants, they complain that the State does not pay enough for their wheat. Thus the workers of the land, in this Karl-Marxized empire, are not masters of what they produce and money, the infamous capital, remains the dominator! Strange paradise, really...

The victorious revolution in Azerbaijan
TREBIZOND, September 17. The revolt has lost ground in Georgia but has made progress in Azerbaijan. The Georgian rebels, who had reached within 50 km of Baku, are rapidly being pushed back into the interior by Soviet columns which are burning all the villages and killing thousands of people suspected of sympathising with the insurgents. The Bolsheviks have retaken the town of Kutais where the revolutionaries had established their provisional government last week. They have executed Bishop Nazari, who was ill.

In Azerbaijan, however, most of the 30,000 workers in the Baku oil mines have joined the rebels because of their low wages and have forced the Red Army to return to Baku. The peasants have also sided with the revolutionaries because of the low price paid by the government for grain deliveries. The revolution in Azerbaijan, whose population is largely Muslim, is supported and led by Turkish officers. Turkish munitions are also reported. Riza Bey is the chief of staff of the revolutionaries and his deputies are mostly Turkish officers.

Baku oil wells on fire?
RIGA, September 17. According to the Moscow Isvestia, 37 oil wells are burning in Baku. It has not yet been possible to bring the fire under control.

Wheat export causes disturbances in Crimea
BERLIN, September 17. According to news from Constantinople, the wave of revolt sweeping the Caucasus is spreading to eastern Russia and has now reached the Crimea. Fresh disturbances have broken out in Odessa and the Crimea. The food shortage and the discontent caused by the export of grain have infuriated the population.