The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-04-28

Copenhagen, March 15.-(Correspond- ence of she Associated Press9-The terror inspired among the defenseless people ot Helsingfors by the murders and outrages committed by the red guard in the first
 days of the revolution in Finland is
 graphically described in diary written on the spot by a Swedish refugee. The account received here mentions that one of the victims of the massacres in the Finnish capital was Virkunen, welt known Finnish athlete. The diary reads in part:
 "Sunday-This afternoon the red
 guards took possession of the Helsing- fors railway station. Soon afterward
 they seized all printing establishments. newspaper offices and banks. The rev olution was carried through with rap idity and energy which completely over powered the existing authorities.
 "Monday-The morning was compara- lively quiet, but early in the afternoon serious disturbances began Shots were fired against the Hotel kaemf, and inn mediately afterward the red guards be- gan bomoar ding Gronquists stone house on the pretext that shots had been fired from there. The leader of the red guards, d tall man in oil skins, stood in the market place and directed the firing Four thousand shots were fired in half an hour, without reply, the object appar- ently being to spread terror, in which respect 1t succeeded completely.
 "Tuesday-The new government was
 proclaimed today. The ministers, except
 for three well known reds. are perfect
 nonentities. The Diet has been swept away, and the Soviet formed. consisting
 of 35 members. A proclamation decrees
 the seizure of all capital. The books ot
 all private banks are taken over, and no person is allowed to draw more than
 800 marks a week. All deposits over 10. : 900 marks are confiscated. Another proc lamation states that it is prohibited to collect house rent, that anyone found in possession of arms after "A hours will be shot.
 inesday-Unoffendin persons are being murdered by the score. The editor of local newspaper, A. R. Franckell, has been murdered in cold blood. as also Virkunen, the Finnish athlete. who was editor of the Finnish Athletic News. The leaders soon found that their followers could not be curbed The elite of the red guard consists largely of bandits. escaped convicts, criminals, thieves and assassins, reinforced by interruptions scum from the Russian fleet. In the po- lice stations, the control is in the hands of rogues. An illiterate postman has been appointed director of the postal service and a Russian brakeman is di- rector general of railways. "All control of the mob is slipping from the hands of the leaders. Tho death standard has been hoisted over what was formerly the officers casino ard on all vessels in the port, indi- eating that further massacres are III store.
 "Thursday-Two members of the Diet, a lawyer named Mikoland, and a clergyman named Beck. were shor. Five other members were taken pris- oner and probably have been killed. Four hundred members Of the white guard have been slain and countless murders have been committed in the houses where people of all ages have been tortured and killed under forms impossible to describe.
 "Friday-Senator Stahlberg arrested ard presumably shot. Today was day devoted to wholesale robbery, or. as
 the red guards call it, 'dispossession.' Among the many purposeless mur- ders, that of the young student Tieit
 is worthy of mention. His father had
 died a natural death at Kerava. and
 he went to the little town to bring
 lis fathers body to Helsingfors for
 burial. At Kerava he was shot, al-
 though he explained why he had come.
 Later on some of the red guards real
 ized that they had committed an uE-
 usually shameful deed and sent a rep
 resentative around to apologize to the
 family, explaining that the young man had been shot by mistake and
 it was really somebody else who