WHERE THE CZAR WAS MURDERED

Western Star, 1 April 1920, Page 3

WHERE THE CZAR WAS MURDERED

ENGLISHMAN’S STORY OF THE

TRAGEDY.

There are many versions of how the ex-Czar and his family met their fate at the hands of the murdering, Bolshevists, but probably the most authentic and reliable account is that which a well-known Cornish journalist, Mr Herbert Thomas, contributes to the Cornishman and Cornish Telegraph, he having the good fortune to interview Mr Arthur H. Thomas, a Cambourue mining engineer, who has recently returned, via Vladivostock and America, from the very town where the assassination of the Imperial family occurred. Mr Thomas says; “It all happened at Ekaterinburg, . • ■ Ekaterinburg is a town of about 100,000 inhabitants, and for some days we heard that highly-placed personages were expected there, although it was some surprise when the Royal Family were driven through the town in a motor car. My office boy saw the Czar, like many other people, but I did not. chance to be in the street at the time. He was housed in a twostoreyed dwelling in the main street, which was surrounded by a hoarding. ... The house was built against the side of a. hill. From the top entrance it was a one-storeyed building, but the Tower room was level with the street. It was in this room, which was not a cellar, that, the tragedy took place. “The first we heard of the miurder was the public announcement by the Bolshevists, before 2000 people in the theatre on July 23, 1918, that the town was being attacked by the Czeoho-Slovak army (including some White Russians), and that the Bolshevists were evacuating it. If they left the Czar behind! it would mean the return of monarchy and absolutist government; so they had, on July 17, executed the Czair and had removed his family to 1 a place of safety. This was after the Ozar had resided theie about three months“No one was allowed to enter the mysterious bouse until after the Czechoslovaks took possession of the town. Early in October I was able to visit the house, for a committee of investigation had been appointed by the local authority. We saw bloodstains on the wall of one of the lower rooms, and 24 bullet holes in the walls at about the height of a person kneeling. It was considered that the Ozar and his family must have been huddled together in a corner by their Bolshevist executioners, and 1 were shot while in a kneeling position. “The bodies have not been found. I have heard since that the actual murderers had been executed by the local Soviet, but that may or may not be true. They were not known when I was there, and no one, by confession, had. enabled the bodies •to be found. Among burnt rubbish were found jewels, garters, buckles, and other valuables, but no bones. Shafts were searched, but no bodies were found, and there the matter rested. Those who were considered to be murdered were the Czar and Czarinai, their three 'daughters and son, Dr Botkin, court physician, a lady-in-waiting (one of the princesses), and one or two others. “One reason, why it was thought the bodies might have been thrown down a ’.mine shaft was- that about 100 miles north many of the aristocrats, including the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, who was about 65, and had devoted her life to Red Cross work, were thrown down a shaft alive and bombs were dropped and exploded upon them by the fiendish Bolshevists. The shattered bodies were found in the shaft afterwards.”