The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-06-16

One hundred wounded men have been
brought from Vladivostok to San Fran
cisco this week by the army transport
Sheridan They are now being carried
across the continent to New York, there
to receive better hospital treatment than
they could obtain in Siberia. These are
Czeeho-SIoyak soldiers, survivors of the
thousands of gallant men that were Sc
verely wounded in the amazing attempt
TO fight their way from the prison camps
of Russia to their homes in Bohemia and
Moravia Wherever Americans meet
them they should be greeted with the
frankest manifestations of honor and
admiration, There are more to follow,
not all wounded, but all weary, war
worn soldiers who have fought through
hard campaigns for freedom since Aus
tro- Hungarian tyranny tore them as con.
scripts from their country.
The Bohemans went into the war in
1914 under absolute compulsion. What
had they to do with the enmity of Ger
many or Austria to Russia? Nothing
whatever. Their quarrel was with the
Austro- Magyar autocraey which had de-
prived their country of its independence
and enslaved them under such force that
they had to march into battle for the
riveting instead of the breaking of their
chains. How many Of them submitted
to death as mutineers rather than fight
for the hated Hapsburg dynasty may
never be known But early in the war
we had reports of Czech regiments re-
fusing to advance and being surrounded
and decimated When they saw an OPP
portunity in the field they went over to
the Russians even under storm of Aus
trian shot and she'll That was how the
Russian armies took so many of them as
prisoners of war.
There were about 100000 of them in
the Siberia prison camps when the boil
shevist CONDENSATION overthrow the
Kerensky government One-half of that
number died in those pest holes Of ty-
plus and other plaques. Then in fighting
the anarchist dictatorship, which they
would not serve, and defending the trans.
Siberian railway, by which alone they
could hope to reach port for passage
home, about $4,000 were killed. If Amer
lean engineers can now repair and i'm
prove the railway in peace, and Amer
ican and allied troops, with the Russian
force under Admiral KolchaI, can use
the line TO save Russia from red ruin, let
them thank the brave Bohemian soldiers.
Only 10000 are left The most of
these are likely to travel through San
Francisco and New York to Europe, the
others going by way of Vancouver and
Halifax Let us not be chary of our
cheers for those who come through the
United States, when we have the chance
to let them know what we think of them.
For the sake of freedom they plunged
into a singuIafly difficult and altogether
unique adventure in which an expecta
tion of success seemed hardly reasonable.
1t will count among the most remarkable
exploits in the annals of war. They had
faith in the good cause for which they
fought, as DIR. Massaryk had faith in it
and in them as he watched and waited
ID America while preparing the republi-
can constitution under which his coun-
tfymen have made him the first presi-
dentA Now it will be for the league of
nat to see that the young republic
Is tied from the intrigues of Ger
nj Magyar enmity.--Boston Her.