Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-07-10
EASTERN SIBERIA
IS NOW REEK|NC
W|THBL00DSHED
Japanese Control Only Way
to Check Murderers and
Robbers, Says J. B. Wood.
BY JUNIUs b. WOOD.
" Cable to The Star and Chicago
Daily News. Copyright, 1920.

BY Cable to The Star and Chicago
Daily News. Copyright, 1920.
VLADIVOSTOK. Siberia. July T.
Eastern Siberia is running red witt
blood. Everywhere that life moves
over her vast wastes death stalks
close behind day and night.
1t isn't the death clash of armies
death of the assassin's bullet, the
bandits rife or the grim squad
of executioners that is vented on men
women and children alike. Life is
! the cheapest commodity in all 81
IBERIA.
The highest government official and
| the humblest peasant are unsafe
| Every day the telegraph wires bring
stories from some city or other be-
tween Vladivostok and Irkutsk OF
murder, pillage and violence. Some
times these things become known
within few hours; at other times
dark crimes are hidden for weeks or
months.
Many Factions After Control.
Though the provisional government
represents the vast majority of the
people of far east Siberia. many
other Russian factions are attempt
ing to seize the authority by fair
means or foul. Semenoff around Chita.
Kalmikov near to Vladivostok, and
other brigands are harassing the
country Their deeds of violence
bring reprisals equally violent. With
railroad communicat tons broken and
the armed forces limited to a few
hundred policemen. called militia. the
,t,;o ont iS 1ofi 11Nv
helpless to restore order in industry
or in agriculture.
The Japanese have the only effec-
tive armed forces east of Lake Baikal.
Either their active support or their
withdrawal might enable the opposing
factions to get together However.
many wealthy Russians declare that
the only possibility of resumption
of business depends upon the Jap
anese overthrow of the provisional
government and taking complete pos
session. Though such a remaking of
the map of Asia possibly is unforeN
seen in the other world capitals, it is
expected daily on the streets of Vladi-
vostok.
The Nicholaievsk massacre, which
it is not generally known resulted
from months of Russian guerrilla
warfare and brutal atrocities on both
sides, with the isolated Japanese gar
rison necessarily involved. has been
reported to the world by the Japa-
neSe.
River Gives Up 40 Bodies.
Other events equally revolving dur
ing recent weeks have not yet been
told. One outrage laid to the doors
of the present provisional government
is the summary execution of Col.
Vrashtel and eighty-seven former Of
ficers of the Kalmikov division. sta
toned at Verino, near Haborofsk, last
April. Reports say that the river
Usdri has already given up 10 bodies,
including those of many missing ci-
villains. The officers had been taken
prisoners at Nikolsk and had started
for Haborofsk for their trials. Before
the train reached it's destination the
Japanese had occupied the city. The
train was stopped at the bridge, the
prisoners hands We're tied and they
were knocked on the heads with ham
mers and tumbled into the river to
drown.
From lagovieshtchensk come re-
ports of burned and pillaged houses,
outraged women, the execution of po-
litical prisoners, including Shilikin, a
former member of the duma, and Ha-
rokotli tski former member of the
economic conference. From icebound
kamchatka it is reported that Man
drikoff, head of the soviet, killed two
district cnlefS ana several merchants,
choking some to death with his own
hands. before his reign was ended and
he and his secretary were both killed.
MaloveShnikoff the new head of the
district, arrested the former governor
and several others, who were charged
with Mandrikoff's death, and put out
the eyes of all of them.
COssacks TerrOrize Country.
In the territory around Nikolsk
under Japanese control a band of
Kalmikov Cossack officers, under
Buchkarov. former keeper of the Kali
mikoVi death chamber. are terroriZing
the country. They captured Spask,
disarmed the government militia and
arrested the delegates coming to the
Vladivostok parliament until the Jap
anese forced them to move their head :
quarters. When the military train of
the Japanese Gen. SiroadZu stopped
there two weeks ago two kalmfkov
officers entered a private car and KILL
ed Peter Utkin, head of the Russo
Japanese Cancellation committee. and
GrasinZki, chairman of the Haborofsk
zemstvo. and their soldier guard. De-
spite the fact that the station was
| crowded. the murderers escaped.
week earlier. at Spask, they as
sassinated Andrieff. commander of the
provisional troops who fought the
| Japanese when they occupied Nikolsk
| in April. A month earlier a band
picked off fourteen other minor Off
| Gals of the provisional government