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Government Is on Alert — National Conference Is Expected to Strengthen Unity.

PETROGRAD, Saturday.— A conference of the political organizations of Odessa has discussed the danger of the counter-revolutionary, anti-Semitic pogrom agitation in the market-places and outskirts of Odessa. A close watch is being kept on the former Black Hundreds’ agents and on the circulation of pogrom literature. A number of these agitators have been arrested. Several German war prisoners speaking Russian fluently also have been arrested. They appeared at meetings, urging the Russian soldiers to surrender and to fraternize with the Germans. A thorough investigation of these intrigues has been started.

The Maximalists have held a secret convention in Petrograd, lasting ten days. It is understood that the Maxi­malists have not yet abandoned their policy, but that on the contrary they are resolved to conduct a more intense, uncompromising opposition to the Provisional Government.

During the recent revolt in Petrograd the Maximalist slogan was “all power to the Soldiers and Workmen’s Coun­cil.” Their new slogan is born of the dictatorship. Of the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie, Troesky, Lunacharski and others, now in prison, in letters to the press, declare their detention to be cruel and unjust. They appealed to the Minister of Justice, M. Zarudny, to interfere. M. Zarudny said he was sur­prised the revolutionists should ask the Minister of Justice to bring pressure on the Prosecutor’s investigation. Have not the revolutionists always demanded that the Courts should be uninfluenced by the Minister of Justice? M. Zarudny has therefore declined to interfere. — The New York Herald, August 19, 1917 —