GRIM STORY FROM RUSSIA.

Northern Advocate, 9 February 1920, Page 3

GRIM STORY FROM RUSSIA.

SYDNEY MAN'S TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE,

A graphic description of the horrors of revolutions has be&n sent from Vladivostok by Mr J. 0. Forsyth, who represents a prominent British firm in that city and in Manchuria. Writing to his sister Mrs A.

E. Lea, of Ocean Beach, under date of November 19 last he says:—l wish the people who advocate revolution in Australia and teach their children to sing revolutionary songs, •c uld see a revolution in progress a s we saw it. here on the 17th and 18th inst., and the after-effects as I saw them yesterday afternoon, the 18th, soon after the fighting was over. Only a vampire could wish for more of it, and surely a vampire would get sick of the horrible signt of men lying in their own blood, killed by their own and the killers looking on, not with sympathy but hate. I saw some sights yesterday afternoon which were disgusting _ but. they were nothing compared with what is going on in other parts of .Russia —and what for? All the butchery and pain to enable one party or the other to have political power.

,The Right bayonet and shoot the Left, and the Left bayonet and shoot the Right—or, as you would have it in Australia —the Liberals bayonet and shoot the Labour, and the Labour bayonet and shoot the Liberals, one side endeavouring in .vain to keep the other down, and th<; other endeavouring to put the other side in the same place. How crude and ignorant all this is when it is only necessary that the Right should recognise that an evolution is taking place and they must reconcile themselves to have their advantages, privileges etc., shared with their less fortunate brethren. Yesterday's fright fulness was actually caused by the offended dignity of General Gaida, a man who had cut his way through Siberia with a brave band of unarmed Czechs, defeating army after army of well-armed Bolsheviks, who, to assist him in regaining hi s dignity, and to hurt those who hurt him, called to his aid a lot of uoor ignorant workmen who were probably Bolshevik idealists and men against, whom he had probably fought. His los s of dignity was played on by some political adventurers, members of the first Siberian Government, who were after the spoils of office, and found it was not difficult to persuade the young general ( still under 30 years of age, to undertake the adventure which ha s cost so many valuable lives. To-day he and his companions are prisoners, if most of them have not been shot and a few hundred of their followers were until this morning lying frozen still where they had fallen.

"For some days there has been thi s political agitation going on more or less openly, and on the morning of the 17th it had reached such a that the workmen —or rather a small percentage of them who had sufficient faith in General Gaida —were armed, and at* 12 the preparations of the Government in power became so omi-

nous that a signal of six shots was fired from the railway station to begin. From then on till 6 a.m. on the 18th the railway station was a centre of hell itself. I tried to get down to my office to give instructions for safeguarding the property and peo-

ple living there, but armed Government patrols blocked my way. At evening as darknes s was falling the fighting became furious, and to make matters worse a terrific gale > accompanied with rain, started. This, with the rattle of machine guns ( quickfirers, and rifle shooting, completed the picture of hell on earth. At dark the Russian warships started shelling the station and General Gaida's larmoured train. This should have ibeen immediately stopped by the Allied warships {American, French, •Chinese and Japaneses—our British iprotector having been withdrawn), as the shooting endangered the lives of the residents in the vicinity, but the Allies have decided on non-inter-vention in Russia to satisfy public opinion at home consequently hundreds of lives were lost, and a mass of (agony suffered simply because public opinion in the British Empire and America does not recognise that the Allies could atop all the bloodshed and agony in a few weeks by taking active measures, and that they could keep order by threatening to shoot the agitators, both Left and Right. They would probably have to shoot more Right than Left, as the upper class will not recognise that Russia as a whole is a Socialistic nation— •not as this is only a minority and composed mostly of criminals and lunatics, supported by •Chinese and Lettish mercenaries, who are shooting workmen and Socialists as the old regime never knew how to do, The Czar was a child com, pared with Lenin and his Jew col-

league Trotsky. "At midnight the rain wind, and fighting became worse, and in the Inidst of it a fire broke out. The fire brigade was lucky enough to pass the scene of battle during a lull in the firing, but had to return by a roundabout Way, as neither side had the decency to respetft the bras s helmet. At 4 a.m. the fighting again got very hot and from 5 to 6 a.m. on the 18th the'climax arrived, and after 6 only

isolated shots were fired as straggling

parties were being rounded up, In the afternoon I went with Colonel Young, Chief of the Canadian Red Cross, to look for wounded under railWay cars where they might have crawled 'for shelter. The Colonel wanted an interpreter, so I went with him, and I was glad, as I wanted to see the aftermath of a revolution. I have seen it bankrupt a country in every way but I wanted to see its effect on the bodies of men. At the railway station I saw enought to satis. fy any glutton. On the third-class staircase were the bodies of fifteen men —one colonel, one captain, and thirteen soldiers —deserters from the Government troops—who were taken prisoners and placed on these stairs and shot at till they all dropped. In

other parts of the station were men lying in their own blood, and out on the street in front of the station were five men who were left lyin;? there all day with the curious mob to gaze on them. In the station yard we found many frozen bodies, some halfcovered with snow, which had been falling since about 10 a.m., but not one wounded man did we find. I suspect that some of the troops had got there ibefore us and finished ths few lives that we went to save. Civil war is a merciless war, with no mercy on either side. We looked in trucks, drains, and every conceivable place where a wounded man might crawl for shelter, warmth ( and to hide. It was bad enough for healthy men to be walking about in the blizzard, but it must have been frightful for anyone who was wounded. I have come to the conclusion that the referendum is somewhat superior to such a revolution. If anybody talks revolution in Australia they should be bundled out of the country immediately, or be shown continuous pictures of the consequences of a revolution.