Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1919-11-28
BRITISH IN RUSSIA
WERE NEAR MUT|NY
Returned Troops Tell of Revolt in
Far North.
OFFICERS HURRY DISCHARGES
Discover Men Good Agents for the
BoIshevist Idea-SoIdiers Quickly
Scattered to the Four Corners
of the Globe.

London, NOV. PA Castle liner
with some 1000 British troops aboard
recently arrived in Plymouth. Other
transports bringing contingents from
the North Russia expeditionary force
are still on their way Many English
and colonial homes have been made
happy by this withdrawal from Rus
STA, but the nation has discovered sud-
denly that the returned warriors are
excellent agents for the bolshevist
idea.
Tommies you meet on the Strand,
in the restaurants, in the Y. M. c. A.
huts, everywhere, do not hesitate to
tell you about the mutinies in the
frozen north, and they give you the
causes. officers frown, but admit there
was no help for it. And those who
fear that thes bolshevist ideas which
the soldiers spread may bring about
serious troubles are Fastening to dis
band the regiments and scatter the
men to the four corners of the globe.
Had No Answer.
Lie real IGCSOH UO1SAAOfAoAA
spread among the British, French, and
American troops in Russia was be-
cause the officers had no valid an
swer to the mems asking what they
were fighting for" a young Australian
| soldier, bright chap who had been
| through s the public schools and had
worked in America several years, told
me. ''The bolshevists kept on send
ing over notes asking us why we were
on their SOIL At first we ignored
| them.
"Then came day when some of
| our prisoners came back. They were
set free on condition that they asked
| their officers the same question. An
other day some of our wounded OF a
previous days encounter were re-
turned to us under white flag in
charge of a young Russian lieutenant
who spoke English perfectly.
"tAsk your officers why they are
| fighting u.s. the bolshevik advised us,
and departed.
"WelI, that made us think. Up to
| then we had sent one or two replies,
| just pulling the bolos' legs. This time
we asked our officers.
".You are fighting the kings enc
mies-just as you swore to when you
enlisted our officers replied.
$50 we sent that reply to the bolos.
"a day later we got some more
notes from them. I do not remember
| the wording, but the idea was that
| they, the bolos, were not the enemy of
King George and that the real reason
| the allied troops were on Russian soil
was to restore the old czaristic gov
eminent so that the millions of
| pounds worth of Russian notes, held
chiefly by French and British interests
and cancelled by the bolos. would be
honored and paid.
Kept Quiet.
"The Trenches got all upset by this
note and by similar notes from the
bolos protesting the brotherhood of
man and similar socialistic stuff. We
kept quiet One day we had another
| fight with the bolshevists and lost
some dead and wounded. The next
day came the usual notes from the
bolos
"This time we answered: we are
fighting to save our SKINS
'sThe bolos replied: so are we.
Let's all go home
"That sounded good. Conditions
were awful up there. We really had
no reason to be there, we figured, de-
spite the officers saying it was to
| fight the kings enemies. He'll, did
enough fighting of the kings enemies.
| l mean the Germans. / was wounded
at Croiselles, on the Bapaume-C Cam
brai road l fought in Gallipoli.
knew why I was fighting then. But
| there was no sense in fighting the
Russians, who were treating us damn
white and only begin us to clear out
and let them settle their own pudding.
81 guess the lieutenants and cap
| tainS thought the same way about it,
although outwardly they kept up the
| bluff of the bolos being worse than
the Germans. We thought so at first,
too, and say, the atrocities we COM
mitted against them were worse than
| any German atrocities against the
Australians and Canadians. Yes, we
killed bolshevik prisoners, we tortured
them. we bayoneted wounded and left
them to freeze to death. After they
replied by sending our wounded back
well cared for we changed our tactics.
| We couldn't believe our officers then.
81 don't know much about the
Americans but I guess it was the same
with them-and likewise the French.
We all changed our minds. Now
about this mutiny: we don't call it a
mutiny. We just call it cessation
of hostilities. We figured we had
fought the real war and won the real
war, and this was just bloody MUIR
der, pardon the word"