MURDERED BY RED MUTINEERS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 1, 26 September 1919, Page 7

MURDERED BY RED MUTINEERS

TRAGIC FATE OF BRITISH OFFICERS

A GRAVE SITUATION

"The Times" correspondent in Archangel gives the following account of the mutiny on July i ot the Itussian troops—"Lyer's .battalion"—in which B.ritish officers lost their lives. Dyer's Battalion (says the correspondent) was composed ol ex-Bolshevik prisoners; among them were ex-liussian ufheers oi pronounced Bolshevik views—men whu had served as commissars in the Red Army. Months ago, when our coininawl was sorely in need of soldiers, and lingland did not appear to be in any great hurry to send out fresh troops, General Ironside conceived the idea oi reasoning with these prisoners, turning them from their inclinations, making soldiers of them, and persuading them to fight against their late comrades. The men wero formed into a battalion, with Colonel B. C. Wells in command; they were clothed in khaki, fed, and paid,on the same.scale as the British soldier, and. only a few short weeks, ago, were presented with colours in the presence of a vast crowd of Archangel citizens, and thousands-of loyal Russian troops.

In forming the battalion General Ironside placed British officers with Kussians, believing that they would inculcate the< splendid spirit of camaraderie that exist between tho British officer and the British soldier. To-day five 0; those officers are in their graves. They were attacked while they were asleep in the early hours of July 7, The officers killed were Captain A. E. M. Finch, Seaforth Highlanders; Lieutenant G. W. Gosling, M.C.; Lieutenant Bland; Lieutenant T. C. Griffiths; and Captain D. B. B.irr, The latter, defenceless made for the river. The mutineers fired voilev after volley, ami, with ten wounds, the young officer dived into the river and swam out to the monitor, 500 yards awav. No one shall say how he was able to perform the feat, for he was lacerated in two vital places. But he reached the boat, was taken on board, and conveyed tho samo morning to the hospital barge at Beresnik. He did not recover sufficiently to give any statement. Eight or nine Russian officers wero murdered before the mutineers were subdued. Nearly 200 of the ex-Bolshe-viki escaped into the woods, but cavalry went in pnrsuit, and I know that thirtyfive wore caught. At one moment there was a danger of another Russian battalion being infected with the spirit of revolt. The exBolos, after murdering thei* officers, ran towards ft machine company of Russians, crying, "We have killed tine officers. You had better loin us." They did not. although I am assured that they trained their machine-guns on the village. Mutiny Quelled. General Ironside vrns at Beresnik when ho 'heard the news of the mutiny, and taking with him three or four hundred of the 4-fitli Fusiliers, encamped at Ossinova, on tho other sido of the river, wont up on tilio boat Eetvisan! By the time ho arrived tho mutiny was quelled. He gave orders to disarm the rest of the battalion, and a telegram was dispatched to Bakharitza, near Archangel, to disarm a second battalion in training there. Perhaps the greatest misfortune which. Ironside !hna met with has been the dramatic, fniluro of Kolchak to hold ,Penh, It was the intention of our command to push up the Dvina as far as Kotlas, assuming that Kolchak kept his right flank intact and came, up with Viatka to meet u\ fAftor joining hands, with Ihiui we should have handed over the command of the loyal Russian annv with which we have- been fighting, given Kolcihak Archangel as a winter base, '."ft him all the stores and munitions of. which he was in need, and withdrawn from the country. I do not think it is a secret flint Ironside -hoped to reach Kotlas by July 15. We were preparing the way for an advance when the news came' that Kolchak. far from taking Viaika, he/,' been pushed out of Perm and was. retiring his right flank. The news must imvo come to Ironside with heartbreaking force, because it meant the changing of the whole of his plans for getting out of Etissia without-loss of prestigp to the British. . '