RUSSIA'S EX-MINISTER FOR WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2813, 3 July 1916, Page 5

RUSSIA'S EX-MINISTER FOR WAR

STORY OF HIS ARREST. . .;; Mr. Hamilton Fyfe, in the "Daily Mail," tolls the story of tho arrest of tlio Russian ex-Minister of War: "I have obtained some details of the arrest of General Soukhomlinoff, tho ex-Minister of War, which do credit alike to the energy and the courtesy of the authorities dealing with the case, and also to tho dignified bcariug of the accused. He was taken Ly surprise when the' house where ho lived was suddenly surrounded at eleven in tho morning by tho police. Tho officials knocked at.the door of the Hat occupied by tho general, and sail lhatithey were instructed to search ths place thoroughly and then remove hiiu to tho fortress of St.' Peter and St. Paul. "You are charged with a heinous crime," said tho Senator 'whom the Emperor had laid.tho duty of inveitigatjng the accusation that tho Minister terribly miscalculated tho needs of tho Army, and , neglected to provide it with the munitions necessary for victory last year, "and I am forced to place you under restraint." '.',-. General Soukhomlinoff replied that he would bow to the authority of tho law, but expressed surprise that such a measure was considered necessary. He had •given.' no cause, he said, for. tho authorities to think that he shrank from meeting the charges. Then he put on his full uniform,''which he is still allowed to wear, thouh ho Tesigned his commissioo recently, and bade farewell to hk wife, who had at first been overcomo by alarm and grief. The general Wns driven across the Nova to the fortress, and there handed his sword to.the commandant He was confined in tho rooms once occu-S pied by General Stoessel, who wns disgraced ami sentenced to a long term of imprisonment for his conduct while irt command of Port Arthur in tho Japanese War. All the papers found at tho flat nro now being examined, and a further envelopment is expected shortly. While there is much sympathy for • Goneral Soukhomlinoff personally, everyone is agreed that it is imperative to discover who was responsible for tho disastrous shortage'of munitions last spring, and to punish him with the utmost 'severity,-