NEWS OF TIDE WEEK.
THE whole situation, both political and military, during the past week, has been coloured by the tragic collapse of Russia. It was foreseen, of course, by almost every one that Russia must fall to pieces in earthquake and eclipse when she had become dominated by the masters of resounding phrases which, in the face of German diplomacy, signified nothing. History may be able to match the swift downfall of Russia, but it cannot supply a lesson which is easier to read. Up to the last moment our Pacificists and other friends of a prompt peace by negotiation were pretending that there was some latent subtlety in the methods of the Bolsheviks which by the sheer virtue of its rightness would bring the Germans to shame and discomfiture. All this was from beginning to end pure delusion. The Germans, often though they have made mis- takes, made none from their point of view in playing with the Bolsheviks. They encouraged Old Russia to allow the Ukraine to treat separately ; and having once got this act of " self-deter- mination " acknowledged, they proceeded upon the ancient and infallible principle of coercing those who were divided. We have written at length elsewhere on the prospect which is opened up by the German conquest of Russia, but we must here summarize the principal events of the collapse.
