The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-08-19


it had been abandoned by the fleeing
bolsheyiks This transfer of the equip
ment was Of course preceded by an
agreement made between us and the
Moscow government, by which we were
guaranteed unmolested passage through
Siberia, to which the government pledged
to give its unconditional support.
Already there were signs that the
Germans were beginning to be uneasy
about our movement To-day we have
documentary evidence Of the fact that in
March the Germans considered our prog
ress as "a naive adventure, which soon
would end in failure When they saw,
however, that the simpossibilty," as
they called it, was becoming reality,
then they began to do their best to
Illustrate our efforts, and organized an
army against us. As had said, the
bolsheyiks, though not exceptionally
friendly to us, restrained so far from all
direct action against us. Their only de-
sire in that respect, to which they de-
voted much money, was to persuade
our volunteers to join their Red Guard.
We did practically nothing to oppose it,
but we knew our men Our people are
too well.educated politically and in ev-
cry other way, 10 be carried away by
the methods Of Lenine and Trotzky.
more dangerous was the work Of Ger
man agents, who, under the mask of in.
ternationalism, found their way into the
Soyiets. In every Soviet there was a
German who exercised a great influence
over all its members.
"Soon there came the news that the
German and Magyar prisoners of war
were organizing in Siberia and were
being armed by the bolsheviks under the
pretense that they were going to fight
against world imperialism. We have
proved now that the Germans were plan
ming TO provoke our conflict with the
bolsheviks and to destroy us piecemeal
with the aid of the armed prisoners Of
war.
"Under such circumstances we began
our pilgrimage east | was In the first
train (there were then so trains Of u.s.
which was to prepare the war. We were
determined to leave Russia without
conflict. Notwithstanding the fact that
vie kept our word that we surrendered
all arms with the exception Of the few
necessary, our progress was hindered
and unending negotiations had to be re-
peated in every seat of a local Soviet.
We were threatened by machine guns, by
cannon, but we patiently stood it all,
although the bolsheyik Red Guard could
have been disbanded BY a few of our
volunteers After 81 days Of such tire
some travel our first train arrived in
Vladivostok, where we were enthusiast
tically receied by the allied units sta
toned there.
when the Germans saw that we, not
withstanding all their intrigue, were
nearing Vladiyostok, they exercised a
direct pressure on Lenine and Trotzky;
for the things that were later commit
ted BY the Soviets cannot any further
be explained away by ignorance, The
trains were stopped at different stations
SO that they finally were separated by
distance Of over so miles from one an
other. Provoking incidents Of all kinds
were the order of the day The arming
of the German and Magyar prisoners
was begun on large scale. One of the
orders of Tchiteherin, the bolshevik for
eign minister, reads: Dispatch all Ger
man and Magyar prisoners out Of Sibe-
ria, stop the Czecho-Sloyas. Three mem
bers of our national council who were
sent to Moscow for an explanation of the
stopping Of our trains, were arrested At
the same time our trains were attacked
in different stations by the Soviet
troops, formed mostly Of German and
Magyar prisoners.
Il viii recall the Irkutsk incident Our
train--about 400 men, armed with 10
rifles and 20 hand grenades, was sur
rounded by few thousand Red Guards
armed with machine guns and cannon.
Their commander gave our men 10 min.
utes to surrender their arms, or be shot
According to their habit, ours began me-
gotiations Suddenly there was heard
the German command, Schiessen, and
the Red Guards began firing at the train.
Our men jumped off the train, and in
five minutes all the machine guns were
in their possession, the Russian bolshe
viks disarmed, and all the Germans and
Mapyars done away with
"The Siberian government, which re-
sides in lrkutsk and which, as it ap.
peared later, ordered this attack, can
lean and French consuls that it was not
destroyed by our rightly embittered
volunteers,
ITO what extremes our loyalty was
carried is shown by the fact that al.
though perfdiously attacked, and al
though we disarmed the Red Guard in
Irkutsk, we still began new negotia-
tions. with the result that we surren-
dered all Of our arms, on the condition
that all German and Magyar prisoners
would be disarmed and disbanded, and
that we would be allowed to proceed
unmolested The Siberian government
guaranteed us unmolested passage, and,
taught by bitter experience that it was
dangerous TO attack even unarmed
Czecho -Slovaks, let us proceed to Vladi-
vostok. True, this concerned only the
trains in the vicinity of Irkutsk; the
trains west Of Irkutsk werelmder the
orders of Moscow attacked in the same
manner. but always with the same re-
suit; everywhere the bolsheyiks were
disarmed
"The arrest of the members of our ma
tional council took place Immediately be-
fore these treacherous attacks Then,
thousands Of armed Germans and Mag
vars in the vicinity of 0msk, Krasno
yarsk and Chita, forced our army be-
tween Volga and Trkutsk to take the ST
benian administration into their hands
toward the end Of June), But even at
this stage we were trying to enter into
negotiations with Moscow. But Moscow,
i. e, Lenine and Trotzky, proclaimed us
murderers and began mobilization against