The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-03-02
MANY PERISH ON
 SIBERIAN JOURNEY
Train Shunted Backward and Forward Across Coun-
 try for Many Weeks

Nladivostok, January 5.-American Red
 Cross agents have been vainly trying to
 induce Trans-Siberian railway authorities to halt a death train on which 500 persons are being sent back toward Sa-
 mara, after they had been shipped from
 that city on a i500-mile journey across
 Siberia in mid-winter Many of them are i'll with typhoid fever and they have
 only such medical attention as can be
 given at stations en route.
 They are part of a group of 2l0o war
 prisoners, inmates of the Samasa jail.
 and other alleged offenders shipped out of Sauara by the Czecho- Slovaks on October }, after they captured that city.
 On the way from Samara to NiSolsk. near Nladvostok, 750 of them perished
 of disease, starvation or cold. Their
 sufferings make pitiful tale of hunger, disease and death. Cooped on 40 freight cars, 50 to 60 to a car, in tiers of hunks
 which left only 8 small space of stand
 ing room in front of one door, they were
 fl days crossing Siberia from Samara to
 Nikolsk. Of the 2100 who started the
 terrible journey, only 1885 survived to
 end it.
 Red Cross representatives removed hum
 al eds of them from the train and sent
 the most serious cases to an improvised
 hospital at Nikolsk Eight hundred were
 reshipped back toward Samara in q
 fresh'-train of box cars, by whose orders
 is unknown. Rudolph Bukeley, one of
 the Red Cross representatives sent to
 Nikolsk to care for the refugees. delay ed
 tho departure of the train until the sta
 tion master at Nillolsk said he was in
 danger of court-martial if he persisted
 in disobeying orders. How far the train
 has proceeded no one here knows. Ex-
 animation of the prisoners at Tsitshar
 disclosed that 15 of the S0o who started
 back for Russia had died after leaving
 Nikolsk and that nearly everyone of
 the others was i'll. There were three
 or four women among them and their
 condition was no better than that of the
 men. There were 42 cases of typhoid
 fever on the train.
 At Manchuria station two American railway operatives raised a subscription and purchased food for one day for all or the train and General Fugi, the Jap anese commander there, supplied some medical attention and food for two days, after which the train was sent on to- ward Chita.
 There is said to be little chance of any permanent relief at Chita and it is feared the unwecome refugees will be ,sssed along from one station to another urtil the last victim has died.
 Many of these people had been trav- | cling in box cars since october <last, most of the time packed in closer than herrings, according to the description of one of the Red Cross workers. Among them were number of innocent persons who had been imprisoned by the bol- sheviki. One was a woman doctor who had been doing Red Cross work with the Red Guards Another was a girl of 1 IS formerly a typist and bookkeeper in the mayors office at Samara. Many of the refugees were clothed in rags or clothing i'll fitted for the rigors of Q long journey across Siberia in mid winter. Their train was. in charge of a joint guard of Czechs and Russians who also were dependent upon charity. The re- suit was that the train descended like a pest upon the towns and villages en route and it was the business of every station master to get rid of it as quick " as possible. Demands for food were made upon the station masters who could not comply because they had no sunds to purchase the supplies The na- i've populations along the line responded to the best of their ability, but their best was far from meeting the neces- sities and for days at time the pris- or CTS were compelled to go without food. T. is reported that several similar trains were sent eastward from Samara and hat they were scattered along the line from Ornsk eastward.