KOLCHAK'S CAPITAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19848, 17 January 1920, Page 2

KOLCHAK'S CAPITAL.

LIFE AT OMSK. AN OVERCROWDED TOWN. PEKIN. November I fdelared).— Arnvmr; at Omsk, capital of the Kolchak Government, a stranger is con it°? bU? 1 i ll ' 0 P rob t ,em °f Mother a 1,; j° sloGp in tho street, under a refugee s waggon, m an already thickly populated care or under a beautiful birch tree. 1 CXl ? ress ” train in which I U ar ?lK for mne dors was mov Gon. > Moivostok towards oL> the kHII * Wfi® m Russia one l m r!f not TulSt n.u.2 lAnte, mti , 118 , ,7 seen " V 6 Fife Was no tho, 'K ll t but to go on Eighteen or twenty trains of re! ugees a day wore meeting us and mssmg casr. the occupants of thc'e third ritey sometimes surmised their fel membermrr to hrino- ' • BUcn 05 , ie USED ON ROADS vehicles of all £rts Tfnr o J oads 7 JSfe* - «I ™- nS &it ]cio vhe P we arrived at oiiobie among Siberhin r,;jlL ? T d°.“ S ’ Tho s-h"‘ from uTo talU- lire r»iTSI TvT t^Ef S a t l l ‘""Ho e nr l " a " 1 £»t 0 ***<», <« dwi* 100,000 But if Wft°« e tln f aboilt it deserted we didn’t ?* P °? fed 7 find Ip wards of 800 (Iff) F" 01 ' ° Ur te&tt.' 101 iakcn °“ st - V M,C - C , T7TS 0I; T CEREMONY will find a ,ltar J Commandant. He door a-iimt 3 ’ lf , he . has to lean a underneath thatTntd if 11 and , sbp J ’ ou And it dnJJ-7 u he cau do better, whether tb? 1 ma;u au J difference ra i l « o the door and the Vi p , tho P° r ch like Uor not. Tho stands md Ilofc S i and on ceremony. Ho biands only on Jus motto. Colonel George H. Emerson r e ’neral «vT- Crci!t K«SntTill of tIIP pV f he ?“? to Sibcria ns ot the chiefs of the Russian railway ■ iiTomsl- a % tI 7k fi ll- Ainerican 1 foum! him if ho was goin o, away and he almost leaped at me in his eagerness to learn whether I had anv 1’ 1 told him not at nil, but ImZ-lPl 11 a 7 r r and *hat sometimes suggested possibility of travel Tlmn he ( relapsed into a thoughtful posture? • because you see people n cars m Siberia, that they are going necTsTarily/> CTeD tllat they Hare moved, CARS PARKED AS HOMES. the I<? iin° 7° ° Ufc ancl sb °wcd mo ou?m rn ?" f 77 ncal, r arranged rii'rr t'acks in ibis railroad yard. Uiem This is the little ctiv of the ion 'i? 0 ' 0 ! 5 ’ r }V itis -b American. Jtalcso’ Chl « se ’ llussi ««, Japan- , esc. Military officers, diplomatic representatives, railway service officers.” 1 r CdonM Emerson told mo that Ernest | Hoyd Harris United States ConsulGeneral, lived ” on the second track ” and I went there. A Czecho-Slovak tomul a compartment in a rear car which was not occupied and I spread ni> blankets there. Tlie three weeks I lived on the train were no„ only an interesting experience, hut instructive. The servants, of whom tnoro wore about ten. were German and Awr.tnan pnsonevs of The cook® were good. too. I found oat the prisoners of war are heiim taken from the camps and put to work 7 Mtisraetory wages at all sorts of trades in Siberia. 150,000 PRISONERS HELD. .y b m' G n,-( ? 150,000 of such prisoner? sti.l in Siberia. The government docs not '"are, to have them try to get mck home through Rolshp.vism’s temptations, as many of them are convinced that somehow thev have not had a square deal and it is feared thev might embrace the Reds’ cult. Many of them have been sent east into the interior of Siberia. Our train from Vladivostok I paused alongside a trainlnad of Gerraa" and Austrian prisoners at Kargat and the wanderers were outspoken as to what tlmy were going to do to “got ovc>'. ■’ wheiy they arrived home.’if thev ever did arrive. They seemed to feel riiat their governments had deserted them.