Bisbee daily review., 1917-09-09
AMERICA UNCOvERS ANOTHER CASE OF TEUTON INTRIGUE
Russian ExiIes Removed
TO Border of SlUeden and
Released From CUSTODY
(By Review Leased Wirel.

lies among the adherents of the old i'm
perial regime were sent under strong
escort today to the Swedish frontier,
where they will be released. Extraor-
dinary precautions were taken to
guard the exiles and access to the
railroad station where they boarded a
tarin was forbidden.
Emp ress' confidente Along.
/ At the head of the party was the
famous Madamoiselle Virubova. for
| IL years the bocom friend and conf
dante of the former empress and who
has been called the female Rasputin
of the revolution" With her the in
/ triguer Manseevich Manuilov, and the
Asiatic Badmayeff, to whom the for
mer emperor Nicholas gave a diploma
as doctor of Tibetan medicine" a
recognition of his success curing
all imaginable diseases of the cour-
tier with a certain cordial.
On the eve of her departure, Mile.
Virubova was intervieedw by the AS
sociated Press in the presence of a
detective. She is a strikingly hand
some woman, somewhat stout, black
haired, resembling the portraits of
Catherine the Great. She limps and
uses a crutch as the result of a rail-
road accident There is scar on
her forehead which she asserted was
inflicted by the guard at the fortress
of ST. Paul and st. Peter, from which
she was recently released.
Will Write Memoirs.
Mile. Virubova, who is personally
fascinating but apparently not a
clever woman, gave a striking outline
of the last years of the court of En-
peror Nicholas, declaring that the
memoirs she intends to write will
startle the world.
"The truth about Nicholas" she
said, 'fis that he has a good character
and a quicker and better mind than
the good-for-nothing grand duke. His
fault is his incorrigible weakness.
which is partly congenital and partly
the result of the crushing training by
the mother dowager and his tutors,
who were instructed to suppress every
manifestation of initiative.
DisIiked Bad News.
Nicholas hated to hear bad news
and reports against others. Until the
last he had not the slightest notion
that all the nation detested and despis-
ed him. He told us only few days
before the revolution that he was
pleased with the conditions in Russia
and would grant a responsible cabinet
after the war. He was positively dunn
founded at the sudden revolt
'Rasputin's name is wrongfully as
sociated with mine. Having been at
court during the entire time Rasputin
was a power there, | know that his
political influence over Nicholas and
the empress an dhis alleged despotic
authority over the ministers are pure
legends. Alix (the former empress)
was busy all the time with me in
managing hospitals, of which there
were 79 at Tsarskoe-Selo. Rasputin.
as already known throughout the en-
pire, assured Nicholas that daily pray
ers would cure Grand Duke Alexis,
his son. The illness of the grand
duke was not caused, as haas been al
legged, by terrorists attempts on his
life, but through defective protection
of the blood vessels which caused a
hemorrhage at the slightest exertion.
disease universal in the Batten-
berg family.
Efficacy of Prayer.
Daily Rasputin prayed. first alone
and later with the emperor and emp
ress, who were intensely pious and
shared his prayers. Alexis suddenly
improved two years ago and he now is
in perfect health. The accusations
against the personal character of my
self and the empress in connection
with Rasputin are infamous. When |
am allowed to return to Russia | shall
bring my caluminators to Justice"
Virubova added that Nicholas was
ont pro-German and did not intend to
make a separate peace. Immediate
ly before the outbreak of the revolu-
tion she heard him make the follow
ing statement:
81 believe and hope we will soon
beat the Germans soundly."
Not in Plot.
'Deny," she concluded, that | am
exiled as the result of any connection
with & grand ducal monarchist plot
do not believe such plot could sue
ceed as not one of the grand dukes is
fit to rule Russia"
The grand dukes, arrested early this
week in connection with the monarch
ist plot against the provisional gov
ernment. have not yet been sent from
Petrograd. The date of their depart
l. hoi.a.r l.nI.i .nnrnt