Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-12-23
CRUEL MASSACRE
UNDER THE GEAR
Staying of Half Million KirghIz
Tartars Told of in Duma Sc
cret Session Year Ago.
NOT GIVEN TO WORLD
Especial Correspondence Of The Sunday
star and New York wsrla-b

Especial Correspondence Of The Sunday
star and New York werla-D
LONDON. December In a recent
cable dispatch the massacre OF 5oo.ooo
Kirghiz Tartars by the emissaries of
the then czar in the summer Of 1916
now arriving contain the frst account
of this great tragedy. which the Rus
sian censorship has permitted TO be
published. 1t now appears that the
whole story was told at a secret ses-
sion of the duma IN December OF 1915
by Dzhafarsov, mussulnan, and
Kerensky, but it was concealed from
the public
In July. 1915, the czar issued ukase
requiring the nom Russian population
of the Steppes and Turkestan on 1.-THE
fringes of the Russian empire oetWeen
the ages of nineteen and forty-three to
enlist FOR work in the rear of the aru1y.
although, according TO Law. they were
excused from any kind OF military
service.
This ukase was striking example Of
the ignorance of the central authori-
ties of the people they were called
upon to govern. When Russian peas
ants join the army their women pillow
no farm work. are always yelled IN
public and have no sort OF experience
of agriculture or affairs. To take away
their man folk was to leave them 70
starve.
CONSERVATION Over Ukase.
The ukase was published during the
harvest and caused the utmost con-
sterna ton. especially as no attempt
was made TO explain its Significance
In some places the men thought they
were required to become soldiers IN
others they were told that they were
to dig trenches, and il was believed
they were seized to work between the
Russian and German lines. where they
would inevitably be killed.
To add to the confusion there were
no registers showing the ages OF the
population. and the Russian officials
at once realized that a fabulous fount
of gold was opened to them. Men OF
sixty were seized and declared to be
forty because they could not pay 400
roubies, while men Of Twenty-Five were
registered as sixty because they could
pay.
local authorities were ordered to draw
up lists of those liable to servo. Thsn
the trouble began. A few typical ex-
amples may be given OF the scenes that
occurred in numbers of towns.
Killed Men and Women Alike.
At Andizhan the inhabitants were
ordered to assemble at the cnis.
mosque An immense crowd gathered
and were told that a list OF men from
nineteen to thirty-one for service with
the army" was to be made. SOMEBODY
shouted They have deceived US!
Where is the document from the c1sr!
foc nd
officer in charge was asked TO put ON
the business until the next day. the
officer retired. but as the crowd was
quietly dispensing he returned with
Cossacks, who fired on the people. KIN
ing and wounding hundreds.
In Tashkent an enormous gathering.
chiefly women. came to md out what
was actually expected of them. Chisf
Of Police Mochelov ordered them 10
dispense, at the. same time telling the
CossaciSs TO IRE.
why kill harmless young men:
cried a woman. Better TO XIII me-
She was killed on the spot
Some Women Sought Death.
A Wholesale massacre followed, which
was kept up for several days.
Similar scenes were enacted in many
other towns where the terrorized. peo-
ME did not know what the officials re-
nuired OF them In one place women
threw themselves under the horses of
the Cossacks. crying, Better XIII us
than take away our men and leave US
to starve"
In Dzhazak, town in the Samarcapd
district. the people, discovering that
the rich who could pay were being ex-
empted and the poor taken. rose and
murdered a number of Russian omciais.
punitive expedition was sent from
Samarcand and the inhabitants vera
driven to the chief square of the town
and ordered to give up the guilty. They
stood there wailing and crying. know
ing they would be shot If they did not
obey. Men were pushed forward, guilty
or innocent. and were led away by the
Cossacks to execution. The people ned
from the town. and then the Cossacks
leveled it with the ground. The home
less refugees wandered about the coun-
try, dying in hundreds of hunger and
exposure These instances could be null
tiplied, and the estimate that 100000
of these peaceful pastoral nomads
were killed is believed to be well
within the mark.
But the most amazing fact of the