NIKOLAEVSK MASSACRE

Auckland Star, Issue LI, 24 May 1920, Page 5

NIKOLAEVSK MASSACRE

JAP. GARRISON SLAUGHTERED

TOKYO, May 23.

Americans who escaped from the icebound port of Nikolaevsk, at the mouth of Amur River in Eastern Siberia, state that the Bolsheviks took possession of the town and made prisoners of all Russian soldiers and bourgeoisie, slaughtering 200, who were buried under the ice of the river Amur. 'When the Japanese commander protested, the "Reds" demanded the disarmament of the Japanese garrison. The Japanese commander refused, and fighting commenced. The Japanese took refuge in the Consulate, which caught fire. The desperate Japanese, seeing no hope of rescue, and being pledge not to surrender, deliberately plunged into the flames, crying "•Banzai." (the victims included the Japanese Consul, his wife, and two children. A Japanese force has been sent to Nikolaevsk to. rescue the remaining residents, hut it is feared that .the "Reds'' have killed practically all. 'According to a dispatch from Tokyo the Japanese 'War Office has announced that Japanese troops landed at Nikolaevsk on May 15, and ibegan operations against the Bolsheviks. It is understood that Japan is about to open negotiations with Soviet-Russia for thne creation of a 'buffer State in Siberia.—fA. and N.Z. Cable.)