HORRIBLE COSSACK OUTRAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 75, 29 March 1905, Page 3

HORRIBLE COSSACK OUTRAGE.

GIRLS BAYONETTED AT RIGA. ! ,-'-.- _ --• Mr. William Bell, a Sunderland merchant, has (says the "Daily Telegraph") received a letter from a friend at Riga, irom which the following passages are taken. The missive throws a lurid light on the state of Russia. The letter says: "The crowds near the railway bridge were fired on by a company of soldiers. It is said that a Russian student had an altercation With one of the police officers, and shot the latter with a revolver. The officer was killed. The soldiers by command immediately fired and killed the student, and then gave volley after volley on the people that happened to Be there. This caused the mob to rush, and the stampede forced many over the quay on to the ice of the river, but the ice was not strong enough, and the struggling masses went through it, and found a watery grave. Hearsay reports state that 20 to 40 bodies have been lecovered, but as we have no newspapers, we cannot learn anything definite. It is also said that 30 were killed and hundreds wounded. I was on the spot half an hour after the shooting, and saw the soldiers with their officers standing in square, motionless, which was very ominous; while at a distance of perhaps 50 yards the police were busy gathering the bodies up and putting them on horse sledges, piling them on top of each other in a heap. I hurriedly counted ten dark forms on the white snow, but had to clear off after a few minutes, when one of the police officers shouted to mc and others. Of course, the things might go off again and make more work for the ambulance and undertakers. "The military seem to be as ready to shoot and kill men, women, and children as wicked boys would shoot sparrows. A doctor friend of ours was saying that the hospitals were filled with the wounded and dying. He had seen a girl of, perhaps, 16 years brought in dead, bayoneted through the back, and also rathe bowels. This is a proof of the ruffianly cruelty of the Russian soldiers, who could stab defenceless girls. A shot may be excused, but not a bayonet thrust. I went to the funeral of the student Yda. Great crowds were there, and after the interment speeches were made over the grave, but as they were made in the Lettish language I was unable to learn whether they were of a political nature. The crowds frequently shouted 'Hurrah,' and sang the 'Marseillaise' in Lettish words. Outside the cemetery the Cossacks, 100 strong, were drawn up four deep. They were a lot of wild-looking fellows—dirty, long-hair-ed, and mounted on poor, mean-looking horses, or rather ponies. I stopped behind and let the chief part of the mob get on in front some distance, as I did not wish to be mixed up with any murderous encounter with the military. Further on, I found that the people had stopped twe tramcars, broken one of the large plateglass windows, and forced the drivers and conductors to leave their cars and come along with them, so the trams were stranded where they stood. Then came the Cossacks, divided into two parts, marching on the footpaths, 50 on each side, and their officers between them on the middle road. This, of course, cleared the streets before them, but immediately they had passed, then from the side streets and house yards came hundreds, who thronged behind the troops, and the crowd was as great as before." "Further on I passed'two companies of Cossacks of about 100 each, at about a quarter of a mile between each company, drawn across the main street in four lines, so that two rows of i each were looking up the street' and two rows with their backs I to these were looking down the street. It! was somewhat 'creepy' when you could ' understand what a trifle was needed to set the whole machinery of murder to ! work havoc on the unarmed and inno- ! cent. Orders posted to-day at the street j corners state that as some of the work- [ men are willing to resume work thi3 j (Monday) morning, the factories will be j open, and if any malcontents try to in- \ terfcre the police and military have or- j dors to put the same down by force of j arms. So thers mays till be bloody en- { counters. Of cours?. the stupid men al--ways come off worst. Our friends have j a housemaid who was engaged last Sun- j day to a young workman, said to be a steady fellow, and they allowed them a | little party in the kitchen. The young i man was missing on Friday, and on Sat- ! urday was found dead at the hospital j with two wounds, having been shot i through the lungs. A woman and girl were shot while sitting in the train. "Some sneerers here say that at last the Russians have had a victory on land at St. Petersburg, which far exceeds their naval victory at the Dogger Bank. Since Port Arthur fell no one takes any interest in the official reports from Manchuria. The public are sick of the war."