LIFE OF REVOLUTIONARY

Evening Star, Issue 18045, 12 August 1922, Page 3

LIFE OF REVOLUTIONARY

MELBOURNE PHRENOLOGIST’S AMAZING STORY. KILLED KUROP ATKIN’S SON. According to a recent Melbourne Argus,’ Mrs Julia Gibson-better known as Madame Ghurka, phrenologist, of the Eastern Arcade-bold an amazing story ot her life in the Banco Court during the hearing of the divorce suit Kerr y. Kbit, in which she was an important witness loi the respondent, Mrs Kerr. _ In tho course of cross-examination Mi Stanley Lewis (for the petitioner) questioned Madame Ghurka regarding her early life in different countries of Europe and Asia. Speaking with a foreign accent and with many gestures, Madame Ghurka said that Odessa, in Southern Russia, was her birthplace. When she was aged only fourteen years her younger brother, aged ten years, was ordered by the GovernorGeneral, whose name was Zilonha, to bo shot as a revolutionary. She became a revolutionary herself, and took her chance with others in the drawing of lots for the killing of the aristocrats. At the age of sixteen years she drew* the fatal number for tho killing of Zilonha, and threw a bomb at' his carriage, killing his horses and wounding him. She did it to avenge her young brother. After tho bomb-throwing episode, witness continued, she got .away safely, _ and entered the medical school of the university of St. Petersburg, but was arrested shortly afterwards and sentenced to death. That sentence was commuted to imprisonment in Siberia for life, and she was sent to work in the salt mines. The murder of her young brother affected the lives of the whole of her relatives, and most of them joined the revolutionaries, including her brother, who was a general, and afterwards became a member of the Duma. Another brother was in the Finance Departinent, and her father was an officer in the army. She managed to escape from Siberia with tho assistance of a medical officer. hr Lewis: Did you pretend to be very young and simple? Witness: I refuse to answer that. And did you also pretend sickness? — Yes, and I smuggled myself across the border into Germany in a waggon containing crates of geese. I afterwards went to England and took service as governess in the household of a commercial traveller. You are a woman who had to fight against the greatest secret service' in the world at that time?—Yes.

You often had to tell lies and resort to trickery?—Lies for goodness are good, but lies for badness are bad.

Were you not in a circus? —Not unless you call a commercial traveller’s house a circus. (Laughter.) My husband was a circus perform >r. Did your husband, Olsen, not get fifteen vears for attempting to murder you?— "Yes. Are not trickery and lying essential_ to secret service work?—No, not necessarily. The work is something the same as a barrister’s. (Laughter.) Mr Justice M‘Arthur (to Mr Lewis): I cannot see that all this matters very much. There are many honorable people in the secret service.

Mr Lewis: It has a bearing on the witness’s character. She killed a son of Kuropatkin. To witness: If you wanted to do anything very badly you would stop at nothing, would you? Witness; I would go as far as justice permitted, but 1 would stop at anything criminal.

Did you say that you would fight Kerr “to tho death” and that he would never get his divorce?—Never did I say such a thing. Witness stated that after she left England she was employed on secret service missions for tho British Government, travelling through Belgium, France, Germany,, Russia, Tartary, and Turkestan. She lived in the Emir’s palace at Bokhara. Sho admitted that sell had avenged herself on the Siberian authorities by killing tho son of General Kuropatkin, Her present husband had in his possession letters from Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener in recognition of services rendered to the British Government before the war. Sho had married Olsen in England, and had lived with him until he was sentenced for attempting to kill her with a knife. He was a sea captain. Mr Keating: It must lie remembered that in those days chirdren in Russia were taken away and shot without mercy. All these things occurred while she was trying to escape from Siberia.