Los Angeles herald., 1905-09-07
OIL FIELDS OF
BAKU IN FLAMES
INDUSTRY THREATENED WITH
EXTINCTION
THE TROOPS ARE P0WERLESS
Race Feuds Of Tartars and Armenians
Create a Genuine Reign of Ter
ror and Cripple All Rus
sian Transportation
BY Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
ST. PETERSBURG. Sept. THE
news from Baku received up to the
time of the filing of this dispatch is of
and Tartar warning factions now ap-
pear to be entirely beyond control and
the force of troops inadequate to re-
strain the anarchical tendencies of the
combatants in the surrounding region.
According to reliable reports the
troops have been forced to withdraw
from the suburb Balakhan, where on
Tuesday last the rioters set fire to the
oil works. That place is now in the
hands of the Tartars, who have COM
pleted the work of destruction and who,
it is said, massacred the inhabitants
who did not accompany the troops in
their retirement. Telephone and rail-
road communication between Baku and
the suburban oil centers are cut, and
late last night it was reported that the
wires into Baku were down.
The viceroy of the Caucasus dis
patched reinforcements of troops from
Tihis, but owing to the conditions
throughout the whole of the southern
part of the Caucasus the troops will be
inadequate to cope with the situation.
In the suburban region the plight is
desperate and soldiers are using artil-
lery.
OIL Industry Being Wiped Out
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 inroads into the remain
der of the oil territory.
The Baku representative of a prom
inent company has telegraphed to his
st. Petersburg headquarters as follows:
"It is no longer a question of saving
our property, but one of getting out at
night"
A press dispatch from Baku, ap-
proved by the censor, says: THE rival
factions are concentrating in their
quarters here. The situation is ex-
ceedingly 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, appar-
emily Tartars, and the cannonading
there is unceasng.
THE fire continues in the black
town quarter and in Bibiebat. Ener-
getic measures and heavy reinforce
ments of troops are Immediately neces-
sary."
Other advices state that g hot fight
is going on between Armenians and
Tartars at Bibiebat and that great fires
are still raging at Sabunto and No
mani, fed by immense tanks of
naphtha, of which there are 1900 in that
region, and that the confiagration at
Baku, where up to last evening the
tanks of the Society of Baku were in
tact, is steadily increasing. Under
these conditions, with fighting going on
in the streets and with a hurricane
blowing, the advices say it will be al
most impossible to extinguish the fires.
Stringent Measures Demanded
Oil men who assembled at st. Peters,
burg yesterday formulated measures
which they deemed imperative and
lister Kokovsoff These measures,
which probably will be laid before the
emperor, after detailing the causes
leading to the present situation, ask
that the oil works be surrounded by
troops and that the inflammatory ele-
ments, namely, the Armenians and
Tartars, be entirely excluded from the
oil region. The oil men declare that
sible, and that the regrettable events
were not caused by the workingmen' S
movements, which is economic and po-
litical but that their causes are deep
IOOlGu III lHC lOllS COlllilluCu 6ChCl Il
disorder which has reigned in the re-
gion and is due solely to rivalry
among the races.
A prominent oil man explained to
the Associated Press that the loss
would be more far-reaching than the
mere financial value of the oil and
naphtha consumed and of the tanks,
buildings and machinery destroyed, be-
cause the supply of oil for purposes OF
fuel could not be replaced inside of a
year. and that the transportation OF
Russia, which requires a heavy use OF
oil for fuel, would suffer greatly. He
said it was the custom to accumulate
stocks of naphtha in winter for con-
sumption in summer, and that there
now was no recourse but to import OF