New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-09-10
MANY T4RTARS KILLED.
Their Casualties Placed at 1900
RussiQ's Oil Famine.

ST. Petersburg. Sept. 9.-The Nobel Company S
office here received dispatch to-day from Baku
saying that the fusillade continued Friday
night with some cannon firing and that houses
were still burning In the BLACK Town" and at
the works comparative quiet reigns. Another
dispatch says fires and murders do not cease,
despite the formal armistice. About fifteen
hundred TartarS. it is announced, have been
killed or wounded
Estimates of the losses at Baku received by
the various companies amount approximately to
$9OOOOOOO These figures include contingent
losses due to the cessation of industry until the
plants have been rebuilt and the losses Of freight
steamships and railways employed in the oil
industry Outside of Baku the losses to Rus
sian industry generally through the lack of oil
fuel are incaculable.
Other dispatches from Baku say that the ma
chfnery of 5000 out of $500 oil wells has al
ready been destroyed.
The oil men met to-day and resolved not to
reopen their works until the right to keep pri
vate guards for the protection of their property
is granted by the government.
Further disorders are expected to-day. and
additional reinforcements are urgently needed.
The troops now at Baku are poweress to con-
troll the fanatic Tartars. who resist the soldiers
energetcaIly. Attempts made to reconcile the
Armenians and Tartars have been unsuccessful.
A conference of the oil men and government
representatives to devise measures for relief
will take place the Ministry of Finance as
soon as the Ministry officials sent to Baku to
investigate the conditions there return to 81
Petersburg. If their report justifies the step,
there is little doubt that the duties crude oil
will be reduced or removed.
The officials look to America for supply of
OIL as the available surplus in the Rumanian
and Galician fields, of which the total produc-
ton is only 100000 barrels annually, is too
small TO be taken into serious consideration. 1t
is regarded as certain that the Russian railroads
using coal will receive permission to use i'm
ported coal. This is at present forbidden. A
reduction of the small duty levied will not be
necessary. The railroads consume 100000 tons
of crude oil residue annually.
The furnishing of sufficient coal, however. is
difficult on account of the scarcity Of rolling
stock on the railroads. cars having been with
drawn from the regular service all over Euro
pean Russia 10 carry supplies and men to Man
churia This scarcity is acutely felt in the NOV
ing of ordinary freight in Southern Russia, and
IL is now proposed to hire 10000 cars from the
Austrian railroads.
The Ministry of Finance learns that the supply
of kerosene in Russia is adequate.
An American company of st. Petersburg. en-
gagged in the manufacture of lubricants has
been informed that two-thirds of the supply of
oil contracted for this year is already its way
and the remaining third which had not been
shipped, is destroyed. This probably is an ap-
proxmate index of the proportions shipped from
Bdku.
Ambassador Hardinge has been informed that
the acting British vice-consul at Baku has gone
TO RaIakhan with a military escort, to search
for the four Engshmen who missing.