EXILES REVOLT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8541, 23 March 1908, Page 8

EXILES REVOLT.

FIGHT FOR FREEDOM.

Tho Chief of the Gendarme of the Tobolsk Government has sent to the central authorities a full report of the desperate attempt at escape mado by a convoy of prisoners who had been halted in tho village of Kutarbitka. The convoy, says Reutor. numbered thirty-three prisoners, of whom four were "politicals." They wore being marched from Tumon to Tobolsk, the escort "consisting of 18 soldiers of tho Ninth Siberian Reserve Regiment, commanded by a non-commissioned officer. Kutarbitka consists of one long street, at tho end of which is a long, isolated building, whore passing convoys of prisoners are lodged for the night. The convicts had behaved excmplarily during tho march to Kutarbitka, and their guards had no suspicion that an outbreak had been planned and - all tho dotails arranged. The prisoners were put into two rooms, the escort occupying two other apartments, with one sentinel in the corridor- and another outside the building, which is surrounded by a high wooden wall. At ten o'clock all was quiet in the prison. Some of the soldiers were drinking tea, while others had already settled down for the night. A few remarks were exchanged between the prisoners in the two rooms, but boing in a Jewish jargon, they were not understood by the sentinel in the corridor. Suddenly, "One, two, three!" rang out sharply and distinctly, and the prisoners ill both rooms burst open the doors, and rushed pell-mell into tho corridor. The sentinel shouted the alarm, and within a few seconds the soldiers of the escort were massed in the passage, where a furious fight ensued for possession of the carbines stacked at the further end. FIGHT IN THE DARK. The prisoners managed to secure nine of these carbines, and strove to come to close quarters with tho soldiers, who were soon pouring a devastating fire into their ranks. The greater part of the fight took place in complete darkness, as the lamps were shattered by carbine bullets. About twenty of the prisoners wore killed or wounded in the corridor, and the remainder succeeded in escaping from the building. Three were shot by the sentinols outside, but tho handful who survived, hampered though they wore by chains on their feet, clambered up the wooden wall, and made for the neighbouring forests. One of those men, who carried a carbine, was struggling to get over the wall, when a soldier ran towards him, and, addressing him as "Comrade," offered to hold the carbine for a moment. The prisoner, believing him to be a fcllow refugee, dropped the carbine to him, and the soldier at once bayonetted him to death. Another soldier armed himself with any iron bar, and killed one of tho convicts, whom he struck with such force that the latter had a hand completely severed from the arm. In all olevon prisoners escaped, with nine carbines and sixty cartridges. Three were captured the following morning, and five carbines were recovered. Tho non-ebmmissioned officer in charge of the escort seems to have acted with great presence of mind and courage in face of tho unexpected attack, and the Tsar has commended his conduct and tho bearing of his men, and in thanking them for their bravery, added that they had borne themselves as true Russian soldiers. The six casualties among the soldiers were all bayonet wounds; five wero of a slight character, but the sixth cnd.?d fatally; Twenty-two of the convict? wore killed.