The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-09-07
The Military Is Trying Hard to
Suppress Disorders at Baku.
So Far They Appear Powerless
to Handle the Situation.
MUST BUY OIL ABROAD
Russia's Main Source of Simply
Nearly Wiped Out.
Large Quantities Demanded by
Lines of Transportation.

st. Petersburg. Sept. THE news
from Baku received up to the time of
the filing of this dispatch is of the
gloomiest character. The Armenian
and Tartar warning factions now ap-
pear to be entirely beyond control.
The streets of Baku seem to be unsafe
for the inhabitants and the force of
troops to be inadequate to restrain the
anarchical tendency of the combat
ants in the surrounding region.
According to reliable reports, the
troops have been forced to withdraw
from the suburb of BaIakhan, where
on Tuesday the rioters set fire to the
oil works, and that place is now in
the hands of the Tartars, who have
completed their work of destruction
and who. it is said, massacred the in
habitants who did not accompany the
troops in their retirement Telephone
and railroad communication between
Baku and the suburban oil centers is
cut, and late last night it was reported
that the wires to Baku were down.
The viceroy Of the Caucasus has dis
patched reinforcements of troops from
Tifiis, but owing to the conditions
throughout the whole of the southern
part of the Caucasus, with these REIN
forcements the troops will be made
Quate to cope with the situation. In
the suburban region the fght is des-
perate and the troops are using artil-
lery.
Representatives of the oil industry
here are utterly respondent, and they
declare that on the basis of telegramsz
SO far received more than half of the
industry in the Baku region has been
wiped out and that the fire is making
rapid inroads into the remainder of
"a oil n. l..
prominent company has telegraphed
his st. Petersburg headquarters as fol-
lows:
1T is no longer question of saving
our property, but one of getting out
alive
A press dispatch from Baku says
the rival factions are, concentrating III
their quarters there. Murders are fre-
quent.
The fire continues in the Black
Town quarter and in Bibiebat- Ener-
getic measures and heavy reinforce
ments of troops are immediately nee
| essary. Other advices state that
hot fight is going on between Arme-
mans and Tartars at Bibiebat and that
great fires are still raging at Sabunto
and Nomani fed by immense tanks of
naphtha, of which there are sixteen
in that region, and that the confaEra-
ton at Baku. where up to last even
ing the tanks of the Society of Baku
were intact, is steadily increasing. IN
der these conditions, with fighting go
ing and with a hurricane blowing,
the advices say it will be almost inn
possible to extinguiSh the fires.
Oil men who assembled at st. Peters,
burg formulated measures which they
deemed imperative and which they pre-
sented to Finance Minister Kokovsoff.
These measures which will be laid be-
fore the emperor after detailing the
cause leading to the present situation
ask that the oil works be surrounded
h. hot s..Sa- IL
ments, namely the sArmenians and
Tartars be entirely excluded from the
oil region. The oil men declare that
they do not hold the workmen RESPONSE
bic and regretable events were not
caused by the working mems movement.
prominent oil man explained to the
Associated Press that the loss would &c
more far reaching than the mere flnan-
cial value of the oil and naphtha con-
sumed and of the tank buildings and
lanachinery destroyed, because the sup
ply of oil for purposes of fuel could not
be replaced inside of a year, and that
the transportation lines of Russia which
make heavy use of oil for fuel would
suffer greatly. He said it was the GUS
tom to accumulate stocks of naphtha in
winter for consumption in summer and
that there now was no recourse but to
import oil at high prices or have resort
to the costly adoption of plants and To-
comotives, which would consume other
fuel. It is expected the ministry Of
finance will take immediate steps TO
remove orzto reduce the tariff on oil.
as suggested by the conference of ex-
perts and others interested in the use of
Oil for fuel held at the suggestion of
the minister of finance.
Prices Go Up.
Tihis, Caucasus, Sept. 7.-All the
naphtha works at Baku have been de-
stroyed and all the factories and ether
works there are closed. The military
authorities are Fastening measures to
cope with the desperate situation at
Baku. Artillery has been dispatched
from here by special trains. The prices
of benzine, kerosene and their residues
have risen enormously. The present
supplies will be exhausted in few
days.
The Tartar movement in northern
Caucasia is said to be directed prin-
cipally against the government.
Situation Is Desperate.
| ST. Petersburg, Sept. 1.-THE desperate
condition of affairs at Baku is shown by
a telegram from the governor of Batxn.
who has sent an urgent dispatch to Tif-
| lis, saying that his troops are surrounded
by Tartars, and will inevitably be over