The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-03-08
TRYING TO HALT DEATH TRAIN.
American Red Cross Agents Are Inter
vening to Aid Sufferers.

Vladivostok, March 8 Correspondence
of the Associated Press American Red
Cross agents have been vainly trying to
induce trans Siberian railway author
tiles to halt death train" on which
500 persons are being sent back toward
Samara, after they had been shipped
from that city on a 4,5O0-mile journey
across Siberia in mid-winter Many of
them are Ill 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 2,l00 war
prisoners, inmates of the Samara Jail
and other alleged offenders" shipped out
of Samara by the Czecho-Sloyaks on Oct,
5, after they captured that city.
On the way from Samara to Nikolsk,
near Vladiyostok, $50 of them persisted
of disease, starvation or cold. Their suf-
ferings make a pitiful tale of hunger,
disease and death. COoped on 40 freight
cars, 80 or 60 to ear in tiers of hunks
which left only small space of standing
room in front of one door, they were Al
days crossing Siberia from Samara to
Nikosk. Of the 2,l00 who started the
terrible journey, only 1886 survived to
end it.
Red Cross representatives removed
hundreds of them from the train and
sent the most serious cases to an i'm
proyised hospital at Nikolsk. Eight hun.
bred were reshipped back toward Samara
in fresh train of box cars, by whose
orders is unknown. Rudolph Buckley,
one of the Red Cross representatives,
% Ials - g. H.,
delayed the departure of the train until
the station master at Nikolsk said he
was in danger of court martial if he
persisted in disobeying orders. How far
the train has proceeded no one here
knows. Examination of the prisoners at
Tsitshar disclosed that Is of the 800
who started back for Russia had died
after leaving Nikolsk and that nearly
everyone of the others was ILL., There
were three or four women among them
and their condition was no better than
that of the men. There were AZ 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
on 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 toward
Chita.
There is said to be little chance of any
permanent relief at Chita and it is feared
the unwelcome refugees will be passed
along from one station to another until
the last victim has died.
Many of these people had been travel
ing in box cars since October, last, most
of the time packed in closer than her
rings, according to the description of one
of the Red Cross workers. Among them
were a number of innocent persons who
had been imprisoned by the bolsheviki.
One vas woman doctor who had been
doing Red Cross work with the red
guards. Another was a girl of Is, for.
merly 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 long journey
across Siberia in mid-winter
Their train was in charge of 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 quickly
and with as little trouble to himself as
possible. Demands for food were made
upon the station masters, who could not
comply because they had no funds to
purchase the supplies. The native popu-
lations along the line responded to the
best of their ability but their best was
far from meeting the necessities and for
days at a time the prisoners were com
PEELED to go without food.
1t is reported that several similar
trains were sent eastward from Samara
and that they were scattered along the
line from Onsk eastward.