THROUGH SIBERIA BY TRAIN.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11224, 6 April 1904, Page 5

THROUGH SIBERIA BY TRAIN.

AN EXCITING STORf.

Mr George Poole, a British merchant arrived in London on March 1, after three weeks' continuous travelling overland from the seat of war. He was the last Englishman to travel by the Trans-Siberian Bailway during the war, and told an exciting and interesting story of narrowly escaping capture by the Japanese fleet. The Bussian passenger boat by which he travelled from Shanghai ran into Dalny while that town was listening to the distant bombardment of Port Arthur by the enemy. Mr Poole travelled by the Bussian railway through Kharbin up to the shores of Lake Baikal, crossed it on, a sledge, and after days of- weary travelling passed over the Ural Mountains and thence on to Moscow. Sleighs were coming and going with officers. '

''Dalny," said Mr Poole, in describing his adventures, "was in a great state of excitement. Civilians were running here and there, carrying and wheeling" their few personal belongings and striving for passage on the outgoing trains to Bussia. They openly discarded their furniture, taking only a few personal effects. When it became apparent that the Japanese had opened hostilities the Bussian officers were roused from their beds and set to work. Between two o'clock and 7.30 in the morning passes were made out for the wives and families of all the officers.

"The train which left at noon for Russia was packed with the wives and families of the officials, as well as the refugees. The train by which I left was packed. We ran without incident to Kharbin, finding the wayside stations packed with people anxious to get back to Bussia. Further on we began to meet troop trains, and until we reached the Ural Mountains, some ten days or so, we encountered on an average twenty troop trains a day. Some were half-laden with stores, but most of them carried nothing- but men. The cars were nothing but rough wooden boxes, marked on the outside 'forty men' or 'eight horses.' Each train when full conveyed 600 troops. The men in uniform seemed cheerful enough. On the other hand the reserves, composed of the small farmers and similar men, looked distinctly depressed. At length we got to Lake Baikal, where we all had to get out of the, train in order to cross the lake in sleighs. "We met great straggling rows of troops marching in the direction from which we had just come. The track across the ice was like a great busy highway. We stop,ped at a half-way house in the middle of the lake, stretched our limbs, warmed ourselves, and then, forcing ourselves into the sleighs a gain v we set out for the western side of the lake.

'That forty miles of sleigh ride took us five hours. The cold was intense, and ore child, a daughter of an officer, covjrod vp by furs to protect her from ihe cold, vas found to have died from. suffocation when we reached the otlier side. Embarking in the train once more,' "we mads our way • speedily toward' Europe, meeting tv( oj» train after troop train." '■ '■