Evening star., 1946-08-27

Guardists in Siberia. It was Kol-
chak who gave Semenov the rank
of lieutenant general, and with the
formers fall Semenov became the
highest ranking White Guardist in
Siberia.
The former Cossack leader told
the court that the japanese had
agreed to make him chief of pup
pet state, including all of Siberia
if the plot succeeded.
The trial is being held in a court
room with capacity of less thar
100 persons. A battery of Moscow
lawyers sit at the defense table
listening to the testimony, but un-
der Soviet legal procedure they are
permitted to take no active part at
the present stage.
The eight defendants, seated on
two rows of chairs are ringed by
uniformed guards with fixed bayo-
nets.
The spectators, in addition to the
press, include high ranking Red
Army generals and a scattering of
well dressed civilians, including
several women.
Says He Cut Down Strikers.
Semenov, a stubby little man with
fringe of graying hair and a
scraggly white mustache. said his
first encounter with the Bolsheviks
occurred before World War I. AS a
Cossack officer, he related, he led
horsemen against strikers, cutting
down many workers with his saber.
He testified that during 1919 while
Kolchak was struggling with the
Bolsheviks the japanese proposed to
send eight divisions up to the Urals.
A japanese diplomatic plenipotenti-
ary, Kato by name, told him at the
time, Semenov said, that Japan
wanted to annex Northern Sakhalin
and proposed to set up a puppet
state including all Siberia.
The Russian prosecutor asked
Semenov if he stopped the struggle
against the Soviet Union after his
armies were defeated.
No" Semenov replied. "I sought
all means in order to renew the
struggle against the Soviets."
The means he sought, he said, was
Japanese support.
In 1884 in Manchuria, Semenov
took the lead in creating the White
Guard "Brem" bureau on affairs of
Russian emigres to continue anti
Soviet work, such as espionage. he
testified.
The defendants, who were CAP
tured in Manchuria by the Red
Army during the war with japan
included Czarist Prince Ukhtonsky
All pleaded guilty to indictments
charging them with armed struggle
against the Soviet Union. espionage
diversionary acts and terrorism.
The trial is expected to last four
days.
The pale, shabbiIy dressed defend
ants, whose ages range up to 70
years, stood up in the tiny court
room at the summons of the court
clerk and gave their names: Sem
enov, Ukhtonsky, Razzayevsky. Mix
hailoy. Suponoy, Vlasievsky, Ba-
kcheyev and Akhortin. Most of them
had served as junior officers in the
Cars Army.
During his examination, Semenov.
who displayed q gift for recalling
places and dates in great detail, tes-
tifled that he once turned down a
japanese offer of 10000, 600 gold
yen to lead a counter revolution in
Siberia, saying it was too little. He
also said he once commanded 1000
troops fighting against the Bolshe-
viks in Siberia.
KOlchak Shot in 1918.
During the early battles with the
Bolsheviks, Semenov stated that he
Joined Kolchak's White Russian
Army in Siberia. Kolchak, one time
commander of the Black Sea fleet.
was named supreme ruler of Russia
by the provisional Russian govern
ment at Onsk (anti-Soviet) in 1918.
He was shot by the Bolsheviks at
Irkutsk in 1920.
After the defeat of Kolchak's s
armies, Semenov said he withdrew
and set up the trans -Baikal govern
ment, supported by japanese funds
and munitions.
After the final Bolshevist victory,
Semenov testified, he fed to Man
churia, where during the 1920s, and
later, he and other White Russians
worked with the japanese in plans
for seizing Siberia and using it as a
base for crushing the Soviet Union
in Europe. From this time, up until
Japan's defeat in 1945, Semenov said
he had the backing of Gems. Araki
Terauchi, Tanaka and others.
He said he met the late Baron
Giichi Tanaka, former japanese
Premier, at NagaSaki in 1926, to
plot counter-revolutionary moves IL,
Siberia.
Japan's reward, for her part in the
plot, he testified, was to have been
Siberia.