Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1920-02-19
TRIP TO RUSSIA
ON SOCIALIST ARK
Lieutenant Cassius II. Styles
Tells of Experiences--Was in
German Hospitals Three
Months After Being Taken
Prisoner--N0w Recruiting

Lieut.. Gassius II. Styles. a former Bur-
1ington high school and University of
Vermont man. who was commissioned at
the first PlattsburEh cainp and who mas
Just returned from Russia. has arrived
In town from Camp Devens TO take charge
Of the recruiting drive in Vermont. with
headquarters in Burlineton. lie will
travel all over Vermont and possibly In
Northern New York state in the cam
paign, but his headquarters will be at the
local recruiting station in the Howard
Bank building.
Lieutenant styles. then in aviation, was
taken prisoner in the last months Of the
war and spent three months in German
hospitals being treated for injuries re-
ceived when his machine was shot down.
His pilot was instantly killed in the fall,
and Lieutenant Styles would have been
shot by German soldiers but for n Ger
man officer who prevented his being kill
ed. IT didn't blame the soldiers for want
ing 10 kill me- he said Yesterday. "for
we had been shooting up their battery"
His Imprisonment experience he made
light of. but he was keenly interested in
his trip to Russia on the Buford, the ark
that took the socialists Goldman. Bcrk-
man and several hundred others back to
Russia. Here he was in charge of a guard
on the snip Of over 20 men. The socialists,
he said, made no trouble because they
had no opportunity TO do so. Guards were
armed with 45s. bayonets and clubs, and
If any of the notorious trouble-makers
had wanted to try to stirvlp anything 1t
would have gone hard with him. The trip
took q days.
In the famous Kicl harbor the dismantlCd
German fleet, said Lieut.. styles. lay as
an example of collapse of the German
m~achine-not only dismsntled, but rusty,
u%npainted. and not even lighted nj night,
It presented Il depiorablc sight. The
Ksiser's former famous yacht lay there
too, but not in its oid-time mdgnificencc.
A terrific storm swept the launches from
the Buford and aunches that went after
them got in distress, While at kiel. Ger
man sailors went to their aid, and ono
even stripped and dove under to olsen
tangle rope from a propeller. They took
the 10 or dozen German sailors on the Blu
ford and fed them coffee, bread. and meat,
which they consumed with a considerable
relish.
Here an interesting coincidence occurred.
It being discovered that ono of the Ger
mans they We're feeding was on a sub
marine that torpedoed tho Western, on
which one of the Americans then on The
Buford had been.
30 49, i''' ~
talk about his Imprisonment experience,
but he said the Germans gave him fair
treatment, although he WAS not very keen
for their food. lie had. he said, al. tho
hospital attention he needed. but he would
not let them operate on his knee. which
was broken in the fall, and he was pretty
well banged up otherwise. His refusal To
be operated on was based on his fear
that they had not tho facilities. He was IN
three German hospitals altogether in the
three months finally getting out in De
cenlber 1918, and back to France.
Bolshevism. he thought. was a serious
menace and a recent letter from a Swiss
told of the Swiss fear Of the Bolsheviks
Of Russia. Germany and Austria cornbin-
ing in a formidable array, The Swiss, the
writer said. feared a sweeping of Europe
If such a combine was brought about.
Lieutenant styles returned TO Amerlca
on the Pocohontas last week and was or
dered to Camp DevenS. and then almost
Immediately to recruiting duty in Yer
mont. He intends to stay in the regular
army and to get back into aviation in
June,