Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-08-19

there was a German who exercised a
great influence owe all it's 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
fight against world Imperialism.
We have proved now that the Ger
rams. were planning to provoke u
conflict with the Bolsheviks and to
destroy us piecemeal with the aid OF
the armed prisoners Of war.
Started East. +"
"Under such circumstances we be-
the first train, (there were then
eighty trains of us), which was to
prepare the way. We were deter
| mined to leave Russia without a con-
fict. Notwithstanding the fact that
we kept our word, that we .s%urrend-
cred all arms with the exception OF
the few necessary. our progress was
hindered and r%unending negotiations
had to be repeated in every. seat OF o
local Soviet. We were threatened by
machine guns, by cannon, but we pat
tiently stood it all. although the Boil
Ashevik Red Guard could have been
disbanded by a few OF Y volunteers.
After 81 days Of such tiresome travel,
our first train arrived in
Wnere we were 4lusid0IAco -
ceived by. the Allied units stationed
there.
when the Germans saw that we,
Notwithstanding all their intrigue,
were nearing Vladivostok, they exer-
cised a direct pressure on LAnine ana
Trotzky; for the things that>were lat
err committed by the soviets. cannot
any further be explained away by lg-
norance The trains were stopped at
different stations SO that they finally
were separated by a distance Of. over
so miles from one another. Provok-
ing incidents Of all kinds were the
order of the day. The arming OF the
German and Magyar prisoners was
begun on a large scale. One OF the
orders of Tchitcherin. the
foreign minister reads: Dispatch all
German and Magyar prisoners out of
Siberia, stop the Czecho-Slovaks,"
4 Three members of u National :Coun-
Gil who were sent to Moscow 10 an
explanation of the stopping OF our
trains. were arrested. At the same
time our trains were attacked IN dlt-
ferents stations by the Soviet troops
formed mostly Of German IND Mag
var prisoners.
II will recall the Irkutsk incident.
Our train-about 400 men, armed
with ten rifles and 20 hand grenades:
was surrounded by a few thousand
Red Guards armed with machine
guns and cannon. Their commander
gave our men ten minutes to sur
render their arms, or be shot. Ac-
cording to their habit; ours began ne
g~otiations. Suddenly there was heard
the German command, "Schiessen!'
and the Red ~GuardsAbegan firing at
the train Our men jumped on the
train, and in FIVE minutes all h ma
chine guns were in their possession.
the Russian Bolsheviks disarmed and
all the Germans and magyars done
away with. ~,
"The Siberian Government which
resides in Irkutsk and which. as 1t
appeared later. ordered this attack:
can thank only the Intervention OF
the American and French consul
that it was not destroyed. by our
rightly embittered volunteers.
SsTo what extremes our loyalty was
! carried. is shown by the fact. that
although %perfdiously attacked, and
although we disarmed the Red Guard
inaIrkutsk, we. still began. new nego-
, tiations, with the result that We sur
. rendered ALL our arms; on the con-
dition that all German and Magyar
prisoners would be disarmed and dis
} banded, and that we would be al
lowed to proceed unmolested. The
Siberian government guaranteed us
: unmolested passage, and, taught by
bitter experience that it was danger
; GUS to attack wen unarnaed Czecno-
{ S1ovaks. let us proceed to Vladivos-
! tok. True, this concerned only the
!! trains in the vicinity of lrkutsk; the
e trains west of Irkutsk were-under
y the orders Of Moscow-attacked IN
l the same manner, but always with the
, same result; everywhere the Bolshev-
3 iks were disarmed.
National Council Men Held.
! 1.-THE arrest OF the members of our
National Council, took place immedi-
E ately pefofe these treacherous at.
tacks. Then. thousands OF armed
EGermans and Magyars in the vicinity
of Omsk. K~rasnoyarsk and Chito
forced our army between Volga and
Irkutsk to take the Siberian admin:
istration into their hands. Coward
/ the end iof June). But even at thif
. stage we were trying to enter into
: negotiations with MOSCOW. But Mos
t COW. 4. ,e., LAnine n Trotskys pro-
i claimed us murderers and began mo.
o Obligation. against us. Under these cir
t cumstances our troops were forced tc
3 take possession OF the bridges over
: ~ must mention the fact that III,
|. defense which. al raid, wa necesst-
. tated by t~reacheroue attacks and
everywhere resulted In the disar11a.
d ment Of the Bolsheviks. was joyfully
a greeted by the majority OF the Rus,
sian, population. Anti : Bolshevfst,
took advantage OF the situation and
loverthrew the SnvietA We did no
& Interfere with their internal affair