The Cordova daily times. [volume] (Cordova, Alaska) 1914-1947, 1919-03-19
DEATH TRAIN
ANDITSCARCO
OF SUFFERERS

| VLADlVOSIOh, Jan. (COrreSpOn
dence Of the Associated Press) =
American Red Cross agents have beer
vainly trying to induce Transsiberiar
railway authorities to halt a "deatl
train" on which 800, persons are being
sent back toward Samara, after the,
had been shipped from that city on g
4,500-mile journey across Siberia II
midwinter. Many of them are i'll with
typhoid fever and they have only such
medical attention as can be given a,
stations en- route.
They are part of group of 2,1OO
war prisoners, inmates of the Samara
jail and other alleged offenders
shipped out of Samara by the Czecho.
Slovaks on October 5, after they cap.
tured that city.
On the way from Samara to Nikolsk,
near Vladivostok, $50 of them persisted
of disease, starvation or cold. Their
sufferings make a pitiful tale of hun.
ger, disease and death. Cooped up
on forty freight cars, fifty or sixty
to car, in tiers of hunks which left
only small space of standing room
in front of one door, they we're forty
one days crossing Siberia from Samara
to Nikolsk. OF the 2,1OO who started
the terrible journey, only 1885 sur
vived to end it.
Red Cross representatives removed
hundreds of them from the train and
sent the most serious cases to an i'm
provised hospital at Nikolsk. Eight
hundred were reshipped back toward
Samara in fresh train of box cars
by whose orders is unknown. Rudolph
Buckley, one Of the Red Cross repre-
sentatives sent to Nikolsk to care fol
the refugees, delayed the departure OF
the train until the stationmaster al
Nikolsk said he was in danger oil
court-martial if he persisted in dis
obeying orders. How far the trair
has proceeded no one here knows
Examination of the prisoners at Tsit
sihar disclosed that fifteen Of the SOC
| who started back for Russia had dieG
after leaving Nikolsk, and that nearly
every one of the others were ILL., There
were three or four women antbng them
and their condition was no better than
that of the men. There were forty
two cases of typhoid fever on the train
At Manchulia station TVS american
railway operatives raised subscrip
ton and purchased food for one day
for all on the train, and General Fugi
the Japanese commander there, sup
piled 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 II
| is feared the unwelcome refugees will
be passed along from one station tt
another until 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 behring's, according to the de
scription of one of the Red Cross work
ers. Among them were number OF
innocent persons who had been i'm
prisoned by the Bolsheviki. One was
woman doctor who had been doing
Red Cross work with the Red Guards
Another was girl OF IS, formerly a
typist and bookkeeper in the mayors
office at Samara. Many of the refu-
gees were clothed in rags or clothing
ill-titted for the rigors Of long jour
ney across Siberia in midwinter.
Their train was in charge Of a joint
guard of Czechs and Russians, who
also were dependent upon charity. The
result was. that the train descended
like a pest upon the towns and vii
lagos en- route, and it was the bust
ness of every station-master to get
rid of it as quickly and with as little
trouble to himself as possible De
mands for food were made upon the
'station-masters, who could not comply
because they had no funds to purchase
the supplies. The native populations
along the line responded to the best
of their ability, but their best was far
from meeting the necessities, and for
days at time the prisoners were com
PEELED to go without food
1t is reported that several similar
trains were sent eastward from Sa
mara, and that they were scattered
along the line from Omsk eastward