Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-10-11
EX-COLONEL IN
CEN. WRANCEL' s
ARMYPERFORMS
SERVANTS WORK
Followers of SIav General
Who Went to Brazil in.
Search of Happiness Find
Their Hopes Shattered,
REFUGEES OBJECT TO
RETURNING TO RUSSIA
Are Being Sent Back to That
Distracted Land to Meet a
Fate They Shudder at,
Bird Declares,
BY WILLIAM BIRD.

! Especial Dispatch to Morning Journa'l
| Copyright 1921 by Albuquerque Journn)
Especial Cable TO Morning JournaD
(Remnants of the Wrangle
army the last organized resistance
| to the bolshevilSi in Russia, are
| being sent back to that distracted
| land to meet fate they shudder
at, Yet France cannpt maintain
them in workless condition in
Corsica, the birthplace of Napo-
leon, where they have been order
ed. Mr.. Bird sends a vivid story
of the strange situationD
Ajaccio, Corsica, Oct. H.
Everybody has forgotten WrangeIs
wretched army, driven into the sea
by the bolsheviki few months ago.
Everybody, that is except the Off
GERS and men Of that army and the
refugees, women and children. driv-
en- at exile with them.
French ships took the remnants
of Wrangels following on board in
the Black sea, at the tip of the
Crimean peninsula. But what was
to be done with them? The ships
went to Constantinople, where some
few hundreds could be taken care
of. but the great mass were refused
landing by the authorities. Dis
ease broke out on the ships where
they were quartered. Many died.
The rest lived wretchedly.
Russians Taken to Rio.
Then came French reports that
labor was wanted in Brazil. Several
boat lo&ds of eXiled Russians were
taken to Rio.
on the way the boat was ois-
abled just of Corsica, the passcn-
gers had to be landed at Ajac: 10.
Ii lrdJeds were quartered in bar
racks Others found work outside.
An American artist has house
and an orchard high up on the
hills above Ajaccio. One day a
ragged, half starved, man knocked
at his door and asked for work.
Anything, at any price, enough to
cat, that was all he asked.
The mans French was slightly
imperfect, but it was not .he i'm
perfection of ignorance. There was
an exotic quality in it. something
that spoke of some far-off, far
gone culture.
Was Colonel OF Infantry.
He was a colonel of infantry ir
the late army of General Wrangel.
The American hesitated to en-
ploy him--what work could he
have, befitting a colonel, scholar. !
gentleman?
The man pleaded, begged. He |
could do anything, everything. lie
would be gardener, butler, valet
de- -chambre and valet-de-p pied.
The American employed him. At |
five each morning he arises and
trudges down the mountain side. |
three miles, to the town. Three |
hours later he may be seen COM
ing back over the brow of the rock
ridge, a heavy market basket of
provisions on his arm.
BY that time his orderly, a
bright-eyed Russian boy who was
delighted to be accepted as cook
in the same house with his colonel,
has tea on the same table, for they
have gradually won him over to
Russian customs, and moreover the
orderly makes tea fit for gods, but !
coffee unfit for human consump-
tion.
Waits on the Table.
Breakfast over, the orderly at
tacks the dishes, the colonel makes
the beds. hoes the garden. trims
the hedges, feeds the donkey and
the poultry. Lunch. The colonel
ito do on the fences
the chicken yard or the little pa
CODA that he is laboriously and
painfully constructing at the end OF
the garden walk. At dinner there
are guests, and the colonel, i'm
provised butler, serves meat and
drink in style to rouse envy in a
head waiter at the Reitz.
The colonel is sad this evening.
All day something has been prey
ng on his mind, ever since, on his
rip to market, he stopped at the
house where his sister is working. l.
She handed him a letter from one
Of his dearest friends, also a
Wrangel officer-one of those that
1ad gone to Brazil on promises of
Tree land. work. good pay. liberty,
happiness. Now he is back, he
writes from Marseilles. where his
boat stops few days on its way
% Constantinople, and perhaps
Russia.
The colonel's sister has copied
he letter into English so that the
American may read it. After din
Ter the colonel gives it to him and
lie reads:
Didn't Remain in Brazil.
II did not remain in Brazil and,
hank God you did not go there.
they did not give any ground and
here is no work except on the
Office plantations. Now I am GO
ng on the boat >Burgmeister from
to Ajaccio and from
here we shall be taken to Con-
tantinople where we shall be It
brown into the streets. or what t
iod forbid, to Russia.
I'm Marseilles they did not let
IS on shore. If you can help me
o get down from the boat I am !
eady to work only for the foop." '
The sister has added Trans
ator's note' at the foot Of the ,
stter:
ut is impossible to get him from I
he boat because they let nobody q
own and those that get to the Q
oat are not let away. 1t will I
q a CRIME IL they take him to s
russia because all the officers O
hall be killed or hanged. And
ow the police are catching every e
ody (Russians) in the streets and b
utting them into the boat" C
This last happening. of course. Is "
t Ajaccio. in Corsica, which is in |:
ne French republic. Can anyone o
nagine a wholesale man-hunt In a
lie streets of a modern city, with g
ne police taking up everybody n
Continued on Page Two.) Il