The Russian Constitutional forces have suffered very severe reverses, and
Admiral Koltchak's force, making a terrible winter retreat through Siberia, has experienced something -like a disaster. One can hardly imagine the conditions under which this retreat has been conducted, along a single line of railway, with poor rolling-stook, fearfully congested. There is, of course,
a shortage of food, and the confusion, has been increased by the retreat of the civil population, which !fears to await the arrival of the Bolsheviks, and mixes, itself atp inextricably with the army. This -army is now about 500 miles east of Omsk, but we learn that Admiral Koltchak's Government is installed very much further east, at Irkutsk. The attitude of the peasants and townspeople all over Siberia towards Admiral Koltohak is rather uncertain, and evidently varies a good deal in accordance with his failures or successes. It is also a misfortune for him that the large body of Czechs, .whose enterprises in Siberia excited the astonishment and admiration of the world, are about to leave him. The.question has Icing been discussed what should be done if the Bolsheviks advanced as far east as they are, now doing. Should the Japanese or the Americans, or both in combination, undertake the task of stemming their advance ? According to the latest news wheri we g,. to press on Thursday, Japan has become responsible.
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