Weekly journal-miner., 1918-09-04


 further progress. When their whole force had come up. they attacked The battle lasted four days. Then the Germans asked for an armisticc to bury their dead. When the armis- ticc expired, they found that the Ger man army had retreated, leaving only rear guard that fell back before them. They reached the railroad. They advanced along it toward Mos COW and opened negotiations with the Bolsheviki for a safe passage on the Trans-Siberian railroad to Vladivos- tok.
 It was granted them or condition that they surrender their arms and munitions, which belonged to the Russian government They had 400 machine guns to each regiment, good rifles, aeroplanes, large supplies of hand grenades, and plenty of am munition. They gave up everything but their hand grenades and one rifle for every ten men. Then they en- trained for the journey across Asia. They had difficulties about getting engines and cars. They commandeer- ed them. They had trouble with the engineers. They put guards on the Locomotives with persuasive hand grenades When everything else fail ed, they found locomotive engineers in their ranks, ran the trains them selves, and when they needed fuel they stopped the train, cut down trees and filled the tender with wood.
 As they got further into Siberia, they found that the German and Austrian prisoners of war, quartered in the villages, had taken advantage of the revolution to work their way into the confidence of the peasants. They had obtained places in the local 'sovicts under pretensc of being inter national revolutionists. German and Austrian officers, representing them selves as opposed to militarism and .sympathizing with the peasants, had obtained great influence over the un..
 
 faculties for the Czecho-Slovaks. The latter avoided an open conflict until they reached Irkutsk.
 There, when the first contingent arrived. they were met at the station by 20O0 "Red Guards" under the lead crship of German and Austrian offi- cers in Russian uniforms. They were ordered to surrender their remaining rifles and hand grenades. They re- fused The German officers gave their men the order to fire. But in their excitement they gave the order in German. The Russians did not un- dcrstand it. The Czechs did They threw themselves on the guards bare handed, with pocket knives, or with stones which they picked up, and in a brief rough-and-tumble struggle they disarmed the guards and killed their German officers. With the rifles and machine guns which they captur ed they took possession of the town, disarming the troops of the Central Dibtlidh SoNNi hiiiShl anu hiihhS thN Germans and Austrians to the num- Der Of about 800.
 On the intervention of the French and American consuls, they sent three of their number to Moscow to nego- tiatc Trotzky refused to treat with them. The three envoys were arrest ed and imprisoned. The Czecho- Slovak army thereupon declared war on the Bolshcviki and proceeded to clean up the Trans Siberian railroad and hold it for the Allies.
 They fought their way across the continent, leaving detachments to guard the railroad behind them. re- cruiting their numbers from Czech prisoners in Siberian camps and workshops. everywhere disarming the Red Guards and killing all the Ger mans and Austrians. They have now obtained complete possession of the railroad from Vladivostok to the Volga. except for one gap west oi Vladivostok where fighting still con tinues. They have closed Siberia not only to the Germans but 10 the Trot- zky government, which can no longer get grain from Siberia. They are now. with the assistance of the allied contingents in Vladivostok, crushing the last resistance of the army of German and Austrian prisoners which is fighting in the Far East.
 The men who have brought the story to Washington arc Captain Hhrban and Lieut.. Danielovsky of "the Fifth Regiment of T. c. Mas aryk." Their hardships have left noi trace on them. of our first contin- gent of l5OO0 men," the lieutenant says. "only ono died of contagious disease and no one caught it from him." They are in high spirits, for seeing success for their comrades in Allied help in Russia and independ- ence for their race in the victories