26 MARCH 1921, Page 2

The Turks who had assisted the Bolsheviks to suppress the

Socialist Republic of Georgia occupied Batum as their share of the booty. The Bolsheviks, however, having secured Tiflis, turned on their allies and drove them out of Batum last week, after some street fighting. It is now reported that the Bol- sheviks have made a treaty with Mustapha Kemal, under which Batum is to remain nominally Georgian but actually Russian. The whole of the Caucasus has in fact been replaced under the rule of Moscow, and its " right to self-determination " is now ignored. Mustapha Kemal will probably soon find that his Bolshevik allies covet Erzerum and Trebizond just as much as the Tsars used to do.