The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-07
GLOOMY REPORTS COME FROM BAKU Conbatants Have Set Fire to
 Great Oil Fields STATE OF ANARCHY EXISTS Russian Railways Use oil for Fuel and Transportation of the Whole Elm
 pre Is Threatened By
 oil Famine.
STATE OF ANARCHY EXISTS

St. Petersburg, September Z-(2:5O a.
 m)-The news from Baku received up
 to the filing of this dispatch is of the
 gloomiest character. The Armenian and
 Tartar factions now appear to be en-
 tirely beyond control. The streets of
 Baku seem to be unsafe for the inhaDi-
 tants, and the force of troops to be in-
 adequate to restrain the anarchistic ten-
 dencies of the combatants in the sur
 rounding region.
 According to reliable reports the troops
 have been forced to withdraw from the
 suburb of Balakhan, 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 the work
 of destruction, and who, 1t is said, mas
 sacred the inhabitans who did not ac-
 company the troops in their flight. Rail-
 road and telephone communication be-
 tween Baku and the suburban oil cen-
 ters Is cut, and late last night It was
 reported that the wires in Baku were
 down.
 Troops Sent to Scene.
 The viceroy of the Caucasus has dis-
 patched endorsements of troops from
 Tiflis, but owing to the conditions
 throughout the whole of the southern part
 of the Caucasus the trodps even with
 these endorsements will be inadequate
 to cope with the situation. In the sub
 urban region the fight is desperate and
 the soldiers are using artillery.
 Reports from the oil industry are ut terly Respondent and they declare that on the basis of the telegrams so far re- ceived more than half of the industry f., Dob, ho- xxrf,, aytf and that the fire is making rapid in- roads into the remainder of the oil ter ritory.
 The Baku representative of a promi-
 nent oil company reporting to his St. Petersburg headquarters, says by tele- graph
 Tt is no longer a question of saving ] our property, but one of getting out alive"
 A press dispatch from Baku approved by the censor says:
 .'The rival factions are concentrating in their own quarters here. The situa- ton Is exceedingly tense. Murders are frequent Cannonading Is heard from time to time. In the Moslem quarter the patrols have been fired upon Balakhan Is on fire and the Armenians are sur rounded by armed villagers, apparently Tartars. and the cannonading there is unceasing.
 "The fire continues In the Black Town quarter and in Bibbieabat. Energetic measures and heavy endorsements of troops are immediately necessary" Hot Fight Is Going On. Other advices state that hot fight is going on between Armenians and Tar tars at Bibbieabat and that great fires
 are ztiil raging at sabunto and the im- mense tanks of naptha, of which there are 16oo fin that region. and destroyed. and that the conhagraton at Baku where up
 to last evening the tanks of the Society of the Baku were intact. are also stead fly increasing in destruction. These con- ditions. with fighting going on in the streets. and hurricane blowing. the ad- vices say it will make 1t it/almost impos- sible to extinguish the fire. Oflmen who assembled at St. Peters burg yesterday formulated measures
 which they deemed imperative and which
 were represented to Finance Minister
 Kokovoff. These measures will probably
 be laid before the Emperor after detaii- ing the causes leading to the present sIt- | uation. It is asked that the oil tanks be surrounded by troops. and the infiam- matory clements, namely the Armenians and Tartars. be entirely excluded from | the oil region. The oil men declare that ! they do not hold the workmen respon- 1 sible and that the regrettable events were not caused by the workmen's movement which is economic and political. but that their cases are deep-rooted In the long /, continued disorder which has reigned in
 the region owing solely to rivalry among the races.
 Railroads Will Suffer. I A prominent oil man explained to the Associated Press that the loss would be more far-reaching than the mere finan- cial value of the oil and naptha con- l sumed, and of the tanks. buildings and
 machinery destroyed. because the supply | of oil for purposes of fuel could not be replaced inside of a year. and that tho | transportation of Russia which makes a heavy use of oil for fuel would suffer l greatly
 | He said 1t was the custom to accumu- | late stocks of naptha in winter for con- sumytion in summer. and that there now