New Britain herald., 1919-12-26
LEAR OF RUSSIA IS STILL ALIVE; BELIEF
Different Stories Of His Kill- ing Cause Speculation On Death

By M. $. MARSDEN, a conhdant of
 Lhe Russian royal family, now in exile
 m England.
 st (In spite of the many rumors re-
 sardiag the supposed assassination of he czar and his family-in fact part
 y because of the very number and
 pariety of those rumors--therc is good
 TGason to suppose tho -o&-emperor, and 3ais family are still alive. The dowager Empress is the strongest believer in her sons safety, and the writer of the Following article. who has inside infor- rnation on tho subject gives potent rea sons for that beliefD
 The conflicting notices of the various
 accounts of tho death of the czar and thc Russian imperial family arc them selves sufficient to throw doubt upon 1hc truth of each and all of them bu'' as q matter of fact, as l shall lfatei
 show,. there are very good positive rea
 sons for believing that the ear anu
 his family are alive.
 But first let us glance at the reports of the czar's death Five different ac-
 ssounts of it have boen published. One
 Estates that the czar was shot in a prls- Ion in Moscow Three months later IL Xwas stated that czarina and her boy #swerc put to death at Kieff. Another Recount stated that the czar was shot +uy his guards whilst he was being talk Epn from M oScow to tho Crmea. N #tsaira account was to the effect thai Xt}tc whole of the imperial family had
 been executed in Pctrosrad. while a
 fourth stated that the czar had been
 brutally beaten 10 death during deten-
 ten in q villa in the Crimea formerly
 the property of the Grand Duke Nlch-
 3ias. fifth report had It that the raar and imperial family had perlsh-
 cd in d railway accident whilst being taken from Petrograd to Moscow. Of the truth of any one of these ac- counts of the czar's death there is no l official confirmation of any kind. By official, mean that the Bolshevik gov
 ernment in whose hands the czar has been since April, 1917, has never ls- sued any statement as to the fate ol Ithe czar, czarina or the family.
 & Now let us look at the evidence that exists which supports the theory that the c2ar and his family arc alive Thc Empress Mario of Russia. mother or . tho czar and q sister of Queen Alex andra and the Grand Duchess Aenla, sister of the czar. were in Russia rom | the outbreak of war in 1914 until Apil of this wear when they came tO E4IS- land. During the height of the terror in Russia the two ladies have men, toned were living in the Crimea in q i villa which had been the property or the czar. The various accounts above | auoted concerning the czars death req ched them, but have it on the au- l thority of a member of the HmpreSs Marie's household that the empress herself never believed any of the ac- counts of her sons death. a "I am certain that the czar and czarina and their family are all alive and well and in safety" These are the dowager empress own words, and were spoken to d member of the royal entouragc ut Marlborough house, Lon
 don.
 Now. when the czar's mother states that she is convinced that her son is
 alive, one may rest assured that her
 majesty has good reasons for saying so, though obviously she may not care to state them. #Thc Grand Duchess Nenia also dis Believes all the stories of her brothers
 death.
 MsThe reader may recollect that the
 aeWager empress was reported to have Been wandering, penniless, about
 Southern Russia, hiding for her life
 in the cottages of peasants on diff
 rerent estates which were still loyal