Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-02-20
TELLS METHODS
| OF YUDENITCH
Officer Of White Army Says
Reds Are Maltreated.

hONDON, Feb. 20.-Methods employed
Ay She Leaders Of the northwest army
OF Gan. YudenItch during the advance
on Petrograd are graphically described
In an interview with a young officer In
Yudeuitch,s forces which has been for
warded to the Manchester Guardian from
Helsingfors by its special correspondent
Publication of the name of the OFFICER.
the Guardian states. is withheld because
70 make his name public would expose
him TO danger.
81 am convinced of one thing" the
officer said that this whole business
OF war against the bosheviks leads to
nothing but destruction of Russia itself
and OF honest men on both sides. We
started out with q belief in words like
mocracy, but the moment our advance
looked like being successful the north
west government was pushed on one side
like q baby, and the real intentions of
our leaders became clear. I have heard
Of the red terror. II could not be worse
than the white terror. in which I have
actually taken part"
Informed that certain English news
papers had announced that there had
been only a very small number of exc
cutions-something under forty-on the
road to Petrograd, the officer said;
ORDER WAS TO
KILL ALE REDS.
at fs false. The general order, not
so far as I know, in writing but under
stood by everybody, was kill all COM
munists and all Jews One officer boasts
that he alone killed sixty-forr. 1t was
said that that was quite Just. as they
are all communists. | asked If he was
particularly bitter against the reds, and
was told that he had lost an estate. As
most communists retired with the reds
we killed people who had any conncc-
ton with soviet institutions. They even
wanted to kill girl of II or less who
was a communist. I begged her OF,
and she kissed me publicly, which was
very awkward, / was also able to saws
a schoolmaster."
was he a communism"
No. but he had been on friendly
terms with them. They caught the wife
of a communist woman with a child at
her breast-and were going to shoot he-.
but with great difficulty and the help OF
a friend ] succeeded in preventing that.
"If these things came under my per
sonaI observation you may imagine what
was the total of terror on the whole
front" the officer proceeded. 1.-The woTss
of if was that did nothing but de-
stroy. [ am convinced from what l saw
that before our coming there was a more
or less efficient working organization or
local government in the village soviets.
RESTORED RUINED
FARMS TO OWNERS.
I'VE destroyed it and put back loca!
autocracy in the persons OF officials and
military commanders whose object was
to get out of the villages what they
could. AS man with some feelings of
humanity I suffered from what I saw.
We captured big estates run by agrtcul-
tural communes-a sort of state farms.
Considering all the difficulties they were
in good condition, well stocked with
beasts. geese, etc, ell well cared for. We
literally sacked them, handing them over
to soldiers who killed even the cows,
after which we restored the estate to its
pre-revolution owner"
what became of these owners when
you left?" -
They retired with us" the officer re
piled "They had been living in or near
their homes. We came destroyed, gave
them hack the ruins for a few days. then
allowed them t. become refugees With us.
And even If we had not retired what
could they have done? Our people had
sacked the estates which the reds had
aFeaRized. and the old owners have no
caFital with which to run these things
themselves II was the same everywhere.
Tho reds had preserved palaces. etc. alb
sOlutely untouchd. There was a different
story to tell after we mad left them"