RUSSIAN OFFICIAL'S ADVENTURE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1944, 30 December 1913, Page 5

RUSSIAN OFFICIAL'S ADVENTURE.

TAKEN FOR A MADJIAN AND PUT IN AN ASYLUM. • An exploit of ■.the Russian railroad police on the express between Moscow arid St.'Petersburg has precipitated an amazing quarrel between four of the chief .Departments of the Empire—the "•Ministries of' Foieign Affairs, tho Interior, Justice, and State Railroads, states tho St. Petersburg correspondent of tho "Daily Nows." = Tho Dragomaiii to tho tion'at Teheran, M. F. N. PetrOff, wps ■ ''recently transferred to bo Resident it '•UJEjokhara;- .•.•'Prior to taking up hls ap-. poifttmcnt lib was to como on duty to . St. 'Petersburg. _ As ho was leaving ' Moscow tho train just got in motion, i without him, and ho ran along the •'••platform, and mounted the footboard : .of - tho' last carriage. The conductor ••.in tho corridor inside at once seined lnm, and tho two ..struggled. Tho . chief conductor camo along, and M. • ••; Petroff was forced into a compartment. Ho protested angrily, and pulled out diplomatic pass, but tho conductor . said that .was nothing to bim. This • so enraged M. Petroff that ho started to fight, and was only overpowered by numbers.

At ; the first stopping-place railway' gendarmes were fetched, and' the diplomat was carried bodily and kicking to the waiting-room. He was taken under escort to Tver, '.where the only, concession allowed him was to get" some telegraph forms. Ho used up a few, of thom before his: excitement ■would permit h'im to draft a message. Eventually hewroto a telegram addressed: '■'Petersburg Extericur Premier 'Persian!," which in tho Foreign Office phraseology, meant "Vico-Director of the First Department of tho Foreign Office Porsiani."

Tho gendarmes could make nothing of it. and decided that it was strong evidence of lunacy. They at once put M. Petrol! into a police coach, and drovo him for fifteen vrstsr to a lunatic asylum, whore ho was put among tho general body of mad inmates. This and his [struggles against his captors reduced liim to such a state of'collapse that lie lay there for a timo. Then ho/pulled, himself .together, and tried to make a dash . for liberty. _ For this lie.,was put into a strait waistcoat and kept .in ; it for tho night, Next day the asylum doctor had. a look at him, and certified that lie was a sano being. He' Was lob'out, but with no excuses; aiid he has since been demanding vengeance on tho railroad officials and gendarmes.. ; Except that they say that ho smashed a window in the train and was disrespectful to tho chief conductor, and that ho used up thirty telegraph forms without being able to frame his mossage, tho railway police have not materially destroyed iiis version of what happoncd.