REVOLVER BATTLE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 8 February 1926, Page 5

REVOLVER BATTLE.

IN A RUSSIAN TRAIN. AN* AMAZING STORY. i'rcss Association—Electric Telcgrapb—CopyrlgL LONDON, Saturday. An amazing story of a revolver battle in a sleeping car and corridor of :i train travelling from Moscow to .Riga in which two -Soviet couriers and bandits are concerned, is told by-the Daily Express's Riga- correspondent. Tile couriers, named Theodore .Veit? and Maciimanstahl, appear to have been attacked in their berths. Both behaved bravely. They opened tire, but Nett-e was shot where he lay. Maehmanstahl, though shot in the stomach and arm, followed the bandits to the corridor, wounding them so badly that they were unable to escape. Both were found dead.

The sleeping ear presented an alarming sight fm arrival at Riga. The steps and doors and corridor were covered with blood. Nette was lying dead on the floor of one compartment, and Machmanstahl was outside, half-con-scious, defending a pile uf diplomatic papers. - . y

The fierceness of the fight is shown by the fact that Maclimanstahl’s revolver was emptied, and in Nette’s there were three discharged cartridges. The police in another compartment 'found two bandits dead together. One had evidently expired from wounds inflicted by someone else, while the other had blown out his own brains. Maclimanstahl affirms that there were four bandits, and the police are searching for the missing two. The Soviet Legation at Riga believes the attack had the political purpose of securing important papers the couriers were carrying, but the Latvian authorities declare that the bandits were ordinary robbers who expected to obtain valuables which the couriers were reported to be carrying abroad. Jacob Masse], an American, occupying the next compartment, states that he heard a man groaning in the corridor. He opened the door and looked into ' the muzzle of a revolver. He slammed the door, locked it and laid down. He counted more than 20 shots. When the train stop'ped the police found all the passengers barricading the doors and hiding papers. —Aus. a«id N.Z. Cable Assn. AN ORGANISED ATTACK. (Received Monday, 10.55 a.m.MOSCOW,_ Saturday, The Soviet newspapers are indignant regarding the attack on the Soviet co iricrs in Latvian territory. The papers say that eye-witnesses confirm the organised nature of the attack. They point out- that the assailants definitely sought out the couriers. The Izvestia complains that the Latvian Government’s official statement regarding the affair is an attempt to direct the, course of the inquest on the courier who was killed along a previ-ously-planned false channel. —Aus. and N.Z. 'Cable Assn.