The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-09-07
LIFE UNSAFE IN
THE CAUCASUS
Armenian and Tartar Rioters Beyond
Control.
ANARCHY REIGNS SUPREME
INHABITANTS MAssACRED AND
TOWNS AsLAZE..

OF. PETERSBURG, Sept :, 2:5O a.
y m.-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 fac
tions now appear 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 anarchicai tendencies of
the combatants in the surrounding re-
giOn. According TO reliable reports the
troops have bEen forced 10 withdraw
from the suburb of Balakhan, where
Tuesday the rioters set fire 10 the oil
works and that place is now in the
hands Of the Ttartars, who have COM
pleted the work of destruction and
who. it is said, massacred the inhab-
itants who did not accompany the
troops in their retirement. Telephone
and railroad communication between
Baku and the suburban oil centers are
cut, and late last night 1t was reported
that the wires into Baku We're down.
Situation Is Desperate.
The viceroy of the Caucasus has dis
patched reinforcements of troops from
Tiflis, but ing to the conditions
throughout the whole of the southern
part of the Caucasus with these re-
Inducements the troops Will be made
quate 10 cope with the situation In
the suburban region the fight is des-
perate and the soldiers are using ar
tilery.
Representatives of the oil industry
here are utterly respondent. and they
declare that on the basis of the tele-
grams so far received more than half
of the industry in the Baku region
has been wiped out and that the fire is
making rapid progress inrOads into the
remainder of the oil territory.
Question of Escaping Alive.
The Baku representative of a prom
nent company has telegraphed to his
st. Petersburg headquarters as follows:
1T is no longer a question of saving
our property, but one Of getting out
alive"
A press dispatch from Baku, ap-
| proved by the censor says.
THE rival factions are concentrating
their quarters here. The situation is
! exceedingly intense. Murders are fire.
/ quent. CannOnading is heard from time
| to time In the Moslem quarter the
4 patrols have been fired upon. Balak-
/ han is on fire and the Armenians are
/ surrounded by armed villagers, appar-
entity. TaTtars, and the cannOnading
/ there is unceasing.
The fire continues in the Black town
| quarter and Bibiebat. Energetic meas
ures and heavy reinforcements Of troops
are Immediately necessary.
Fierce Fires Raging.
! Other advices state that a hot fight is
going on between ArmenianS and Tartars
/ at Bibiebat and that great fires are still
raging at SabuntO and Nomani fed by
| immense tanks of naptha, of which there
are 1000 in that region. and that the con-
/ flagration at Baku, where up to last
! evening the tanks of the society OF Baku
! were intact. Is steadily increasing. Under
! these conditions, with fighting going on
/ i'm the streets and with a hurricane blow
/ ing the advices say il will he almost iEa-
] possible 10 eXtinguish the fires.
Urgent Need of Troops.
! OIL men who assembled at st. Peters
/ burg. Yesterday formulated measures
which they deemed imperative and which
/ they presented to Finance Minister Ko-
/ kOvsOff. These measures, which probably
/ will be laid before the emperor. after de
l failing the causes leading TO the present
1 situation ask that the oil works be sur
/ rounded by troops and that the infam-
mstOry elements, namely, the ATmenians
and TartaTS. be entirely excluded from
/ the oil region. The oil men declare that
they do not hold the WOrkmen response
/ BILE and that the regrettable events were
not caused by the wOrkingmen's move
I ment, which is economic and political,
/ but that their causes are reeD rooted in
/ the long continued general disorder which
/ has reigned in the region owing solely TO
/ rivalry among the races.
Loss is Serious.
! A prominent oil man explained to the