The evening leader., 1918-08-19
Reads Like Fantastic Romance Be-
fore Which Imagination Fades
Into the Prosaic, =
Said Capt. Hurban Speaking of the Czecho-Sovaks,
Their Organization and March
Arc md the World

regiments had 200 to 800 machine
guns and nobody in Russia, to say
nothing of Moscow, could have at al
contemplated an attempt at opposi
tion. Moscow, moreover, would have
received us with open arms. But we
were determined to leave as the army
of friendly, brother nation, with an
army which in spite of all bad ex-
periences, wished Russia the strength
ening of real democracy. Although
we could not sympathize with the Boil
shevik government, we, as guests, re-
Trained from all action against it, and
rema ned absolutely loyal to it.
s'To prove indisputably our loyalty,
we turned over to the Bolsheviki ev-
erything, all our arms with the excep-
ton { 9 few riflas which we kept fcr
our, so to say, personal safe'y 30 ri,
fl S for each 100 mem. The equip
aaent VIC turned over to the Bolshe-
Wiki included arms, horses, automo-
biles, aiIp'aaes, etc, and was worth
more than 1.cc0,Q00,000 rubies, andit
was legally IN cur possession, for we
took it away from the Germans, to
whom it he'd been abandoned by the
fleeing Bolsheviki. This transfer of
the ecu 'pment was, of course, preced-
ed by an agreement made between US
and the Moscow government, by which
we were guaranteed unmolested pass
age through Siberia, to which the gov
elmment pledged it's unconditional
support.
ALREADY there were signs that the
Germans were beginning to be uneasy
about our movement. Today we have
documentary evidence Of the fact that
in March the Germans considered our
progress as a naive adventure, which
soon would end in failure. When they
saw, however, chat the "impossibility.
as they called it, was becoming re-
atty, they began to do their best to
frustrate our efforts, and organized an
army against us. AS | had said, the
, Bolshevilii,, though not exceptionally
friendly to Us, refrained so far from
any direct action against us. The
only desire in that respect, to which
they devoted much money, was to per-
sQado our volunteers to join thoil
Red Guard We did practically moth
ing to oppose it, but we knew our
j men. Our people are too well educat-
ed politically, and in every other way
to be carried away by the methods OF
Lensne and Trotsky.
/ More dangerous was the work OF
German agents who, under the mask
of internationalism found their way
into the soviets. In every soviet there
was German who exercised a great
influence over all it's members.
/ Soon there came the news that the
German and Magyar prisoners of wan
were organizing in Siberia and were
being armed bv the Bolshevks under
the pretense that they were going
fight against "world Imperialism"
/ We have proved now that the Ger
mans were planning to provoke oul
conflict with the Bolsheviki and tc
destroy Us piecemeal with the aid OF
the armed prisoners of war.
Uunder such circumstances we be-
gan our pilgrimage east. ] was in
the first train There were eighty
trains of us}, which was to prepare
the way. We were determined tc
leave Russia without a conflict. Not.
withstanding the fact that we kept
our word, that we surrendered all
arms with the exception Of the few
necessary. our progress was hindered
and unending ncrotiations hed - he
repeated in every seat of a soviet. we
were threatened by machine guns. by
cannon, but we patiently stood it all
although the Bo!sheviki Red Guard
could have been disbandod by a few
of our our volunteers. After 81 DAYS
of such tiresono traval our 4fre l,s:
arrived at Vladivostok where VIZ were
enthusiastically received by the a'liet
units. stationed there.
'tWhen the Germans saw that we
notwithstanding all their intrigue
were nearing Vladivostok, they exer.
cised direct pressure on Lenine ane
Trotsky; for the things that were lat.
er committed by the soviets cannot
any further be explained away by il.
norance. The trains were stopped Al
different stations so that they fnallt
were separated by a distance of owe,
so miles from one another Provoking
incidents Of al kinds were The ordal
of the day. The arrning of the Ger
man and Magyar prisoners was been,
on Q large scale. One Of the orders q
Tchitcherin, the Rolshevik forcigr