RUSSIANS IN PERSIA.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 492, 27 April 1909, Page 7

RUSSIANS IN PERSIA.

TO RELIEVE TABRIZ. THE PROTECTION OF FOREIGNERS. ISV.OLSKY'S* EXPLANATION. [BY TELE GRAPH —PIIEBS ABBOCIATION—COPVBIOUT.) St. Petersburg, April 25. Two Russian battalions, a battery of | artillery,' and a q\iickfirer company, havo started for Tabriz, whero the inhabitants ire starving on account of tho. long siege ■ by tho Shah's troops.. M.lsvolsky, Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, in a circular Note to tho Powers, ox-; plains that the expedition is ti) be restricted to measures'of relief and the-protection of tho Consulates and foreigners. When order i is restored the detachment will bo with- ' drawn. ; THE RUSSIAN ADVANCE. PERSIAN CONTESTANTS ALARMED. (Rec. April 2G, 10.5 p.m.) Teheran, April 26. Two ,sotnias of Cossacks aro searching (?. marching to) : Tabriz. A company of tho Russian frontier guard has occupiod tho Persian town of Julfa, on I .he right, or Persian, side of tho river Araxes. Other Russians are marching from Tiflis, tho capital of Russian Caucasia. • The Shah, after negotiating with tho besieged Nationalists at Tabriz, has consented to an indefinite prolongation of the armistice. Both Nationalists and Royalists aro profoundly uneasy at tho Russian intervention. FUGITIVE SWIMMERS SHOT. In tho middle of, March, it was ■ recognised in. Europe that Russian intervention in northwest .■ Persia ■ was likely to become unavoidable. The Caucasian. Viceroy,. Prince Yorontsoff, was ordered to reinforce tlie frontier garrisons and to. keep several detachments ready, if necessary, immediately to enter Persian territory. At Baku considerable military preparations were in progress, and gunboats and, transports were ready to leave. It was .considered certain tlwt Russia, after consultation with Great Britain,, had already decided to intervene to protect European interests, .. . The "Novoe VremyaV'on March 15 published a telegratn from Jul/a stating that a thousand of tho Persian GoTcrnment's horsemen and five hundred men on foot from Kara Dagh were marching towards Julfa. They had . pillaged and burned ten villages,-including four inhabited by -Russian subjects, and killed the peaceful inhabitants, who had take? to .flight.' Many women, carrying children an their backs, tried to swim tq the Russian bank of/.tho river, but werj shot. Three hundred homeless families took refuge on an island in the Araxes between Russian and Persian Julfa.