The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-05-07
on French Naval Mutiny
By Fred Ellis

whole of the Crlmea is occupied;
the troops are composed of French,
Greeks, Poles, Serbs and volunteers.
In Sebastopol there is an English
division. Bertelot, the general in
command, has his quarters in Buch-
Arrest and is endeavoring to effect
general mobilization of Rumania.
General d'Anselme holds the COM
mand in Odessa.
The revolt developed in three es-
sential phases:
Refusal to march. A number
of battalions refused to advance
against the Red Army, the Red
Guards and the Red partisans. A
few examples: On January 30th
one battalion of the 58th Infantry
regiment and two battalions of the
Alpine regiment left Bender in Bes-
sarabia in order to take possession
of Tiraspol which was occupied by
the Red Guards. They marched off
under vehement protests on the part
of the infantry who reproached the
artillery with obeying orders.
Refuse to Fight 'Reds."
At the first rafting of the ma
chine gun salvos, the 58th regiment
refused to fight and withdrew, car
rying the artillery with it. When,
after Tiraspol had been taken by
other troops, they were again or
dered to march into that town, they
only did so, under the condition that
there would be no fighting and that
the whole General Staff should be
in the first carriage.
The machine guns were placed at
the doors Of the other carriages in
order to prevent any treachery on
the part of the officers. Later. the
regiment was disarmed and sent to
Morocco. Events of this kind &C.
Cured repeatedly in various places.
The French troops, which some
times succeeded in carrying with
them Greek troops and others, re-
fused to advance against the "Reds'
and, as for instance on the occasion
of the attack on Odessa on April
9rd, to mount the guns.
But the time had already come
when the soldiers were no longer
satisfied with refusing to obey or
ders. A corps of the 7th regimen,
of engineers received their officers
with gun fire. 1t could only be per.
suaded with great difficulty to fol
low the army which was retreatine
on Alderman. On April 5th, Odessa
was evacuated. Whole units Of
! troops, surrounded by Greek troops
left the town, singing the "Inter.
national" The troops arrived in Ak
, herman in complete dissolution. Of
: ficers of high rank and generals left
the town in great haste on ships Oh
motor-cars.
2.-The Black Sea Revolt. Tit
: sailors were witnesses Of the com
plete disorder prevailing on the oc
casion of the evacuation of Odess,
on April 9Th. Even on board thu
warships discipline ceased to exist
Complete disintegration had takei
place. On almost all the ships, thu
non-commissioned machine-gun of
ficers made common cause with thu
crew, many non-commissioned war
, rant officers remained neutral.
Open Revolt.
No longer did they stop at thu
! refusal to march, open revolt tool
, place, the General Staff was aske'
, to direct the fleet back to Franc
, and this demand was supported b.
threats. This was the second stage
On April 10th, at midnight,
was arrested in Galatz (Rumania
, together with three other sailors
amongst them Badina, as I was jus
returning to the torpedoboat "Pro
, test" of which I was the chief mech
' anician. I was coming back from
, secret meeting.
. We had come from Odessa a few
3 days ago and had formed the plal
t of capturing the first ship standing
] in the offing and taking it back t
: Odessa. We wanted to find on
4 there in what way it would be pos
e sible to persuade whole section o
: the Black Sea fleet to return t
1 France. The conspiracy had jus
!, been betrayed "in time" by three pc
3 lice agents. - y
s..s (To Be Continued