THE MURDER AT THE EMBASSY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 44, 16 November 1918, Page 7

THE MURDER AT THE EMBASSY

VICTIHI OR A BOLSHEVIK CROWD THE LATE CAPTAIN CROMIE (By Arlhmr Pollen.) The savage inurdei: of Captain Francis Gromie, 8.M., while 'defending the Uritish Embassy at Petrograd,. has all the marks'of high'tragedy. The victim was' a. herd in every sense of that much hackneyed word. ' ! Brave, f.cccmplislied, resourceful 1 , patient, he had striven faithfully to rescue the Biissian .fleet from the midsummer madness that, by "killing discipline, threatened to rob it of all fighting value.- A dozen times he had faced the Berserker rnge cf the mutineers, and, by Hie nobility of his bearing and 'his fearless calm, had stayed their maniac passion'aiid saved the lives of scores of officers. With infinite tact and corn-age he had carried in the naval war, so far as one man and one small flotilla of:, submarines could' do it, throughout the slimmer and autumn of 1017.. ,

'When the final collapse, came, and peace was inevitable, he' destroyed his boats, sent their crews home, and stayed himself to- protect ■ British' lesidents in Kussia, and, so far as he could, to hold together all the forces of sanity and reason. "■ Each successful effort had given liiui a week or a month more for the 'service of Kussia, trying to save her from enslavement. That he succeeded so often 'seemed ibeyond belief. His- success has only heightened the horror of the final failure. Now he has' died spending his la.st breath'in the service of his ] murderers. His hold over' his men was extraordinary and owed'nothing, to'the gifts of tho .""Popularity Jack." Ho had no ■readiness " ia. chalf or in any" of the demagogic arts.' His authority lay in this, that those.'nnderli'ini relied implicity"on his "courage, his knowledge of craft, and his' unswerving sense of justice. He was infinitely patient m fathoming the troubles of'others,' infinitely persistent in seeing that those who. served their country'• well got a full recognition of thek merits. .Yet he was severe on thoso who failed through their own fault. And he did. not spare himself from 'his own' censure. " Once off Memel' his boat got; its propellers entangled in a German net; For hours every effort to break loose failed. It looked as if escapo was impossible. Gromie made no mystery of the situation, lt might bo necessary.to destroy the boat to prevent its falling into German hands. To do this he. would blow out his ballast and once on the surface, give his crew a few minutes t0... swim for their ..lives, when he would fire /bombs to destroy the submarine. ■:•-. He took the entire blame foir the situation upon (himself. ' I have got you into this, and I do not. see how I can get you out," he told them. At Inst a very dexterous, but highly perilous, backward dive broke the boat free, and the danger was over. It was characteristic that • this-Crombie's only even momentary failure as.a .submartno com-mander-was the thing-.that established him-most firmly as a-leader of men. He and his crew had faced' death together; and he had taken the blame of it before them all. . Cromie's war services began when lie forced a passage into the Baltic in El 9 during the autumn of 1915. He appeared oil the scene, therefore, after tho more dramatic" of Max Horton's successes. But it vva's not long' before he made his presence felt. It was lie who organised the systematic attack on the ships bringing the. Swedish oro to Germany. Before tho winter set in he had himself sunk ten of these,, and the German ,crmser Undine' as well. As a fact, from no single trip did ho return empty-handed. His contribution, then,, to the British campaign in these water* .'during (hat fighting' season- was very considerable. When the. pause of the long-winter came it was natural enough that the chief responsibility for keeping the. flotilla in fighting trim should fall upon one whose administrative capacity had. so often been proved before. :■ , ■; Cromie's place, in history was made for him by the great crisis of 1917. Ihe headquarters of the British; flotilla were then at Ttcval, and when,,the revolution -broke out, Cramie himself .was at Petrograd. on'leave. -At ihe hpteljn which he and a handful-uf. other British officers were staying, ho persuaded all their liuseian confreres to retire from Ihe grouhd floor, and.to leave the foreigners to face the mob. ' Their calmness and unconcern surprised.-and disarmed the revolutionaries when they broke in.- But at nightfall it was said that shots were fired from tho roof of the hotel, and on the following .day. it was-with-far greater difficulty that'the .situation was saved. '.Cromio was, however, equal'to it. But he was unable to stay at Petrograd, his. duty being 1 to return to lieval to' protect his flotilla. He arrived there the day before the naval mutiny broke] Out'. At Hclsingfbrs and Kronstadt- the outbreak was accompinied by'tho most -hideous'atrocities.'' ■ TM'pfo' than a hun"dred'naval officers were murdered with livery circumstances of,'horror, and that 'flt'Keval things took* a much'.milder turn was attributed by liussian officers who lived through" those awful days entirely.'to Cromio and the British detachment's. : . ' . ~' „ Cromie's headquarters were in the Russion cruiser Dwina, and in this ship, as iii all others, the mutineers disrated their officer's ''and elected substitutes. Ono liussian officer whoso -severity had liindo him unpopular with the men was marked for vengeance, iuxl when ho took refuge' under Cromios protection his immediate- surrender was demanded. But Cromio's 'firmness, tact, and good humour were equal to tho-"situation; and -another life was saved. 1 When the mutineers set fire to tho yard'and town it was Cromie's bluejackets organised as <i fire brigade that checked the conflagration. lt was, of course, impossible to resist tho' insane' changes made in- tho 'constitution of the liussian fleet. All discipline was at an end; the men elected their own' officers. Cromie's•• own body servant becamo captain of the Dwina. The strain on tho English crows was extraordinary. Tho spectacle of all authority overthrown and sailormen, like themreives, hitherto "tinder discipline, made suddenly masters of iho situation,- might havo shaken somo at least in any body of men. But if was not for nothing that Cromio had the reputation of being, a .real leader of men. He know'ho could trust his men, but ho took euro that they understood day by day and weok; by "week .exactly, what tho situation was.' From the vety beginning of these troublous times ho had all his men around .hint every Sunday 'explaining tho .political and the war situation, telling them how each and all could help tho common cause. In turn ho cuuld rely upon, them to. make his path easier with the 'committees that ran the fleet. Cromie's anxiety was, of course, to maintain the war against the Germans in the Baltic. .Without discipline the liussinn licet could do nothing. He begged, argued, cajoled to get order and authority re-established. "You cannot light without it," he told them, "aid if you doubt iny words, ask my sailors." But it all in vain. Beyond what the British flotilla could do, very little was done in the Baltic, that year. And they could do very little; .