FEARFUL ATROCITIES BY RUSSIAN TROOPS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 218, 13 September 1881, Page 1

FEARFUL ATROCITIES BY RUSSIAN TROOPS.

8000 FUGITIVES HACKED TO PIECES. " Eight thousand fugitives, of both sexes, were hacked to pieces by. our pursuing troops" is & sentence which reads more like one from the despatches of the ruthless and bloodthirsty Suwa-' roff, or some other similar commander of times gone by, than from a report written only a few months ■ ago, and published a few weeks since at Sit. Petersburg. The statement in question is taken from the official report sent by General Skobeleff a few days in advance of himself, and which has now been published in extenso in the Voennoi Svornik, the monthly review of the Minister of War, Theoccasion was the storming of Geok Tepe, on the 24th January last. After the Russian troops bad blown up the outer wall by dynamite and entered the breach, the enemy began to quit the stronghold and flee towards the desert. The horsemen, being mounted, were able to get away first, and then streamed out ten or twelve thousand fugitives on foot — men, women and children. Their path lay across the flat and open sands without even a shrub or dip in the ground to give them concealment. Against these Skobeleff sent the whole of his cavalry, a portion of hia horse artillery, and "as many bayonets as could be spared. The pursuing force started at 4 o'clock, and continued its work of massacre till ten at night, when darkness compelled them to bring their operations to a close. There seems to have been no. resistance, at least Skobeleff's report, which is minute enough m other matters, speak of none during the pursuit. There is also not the : slightest mention of any attempt being made to take any prisoners. What appears to have been done was this—the cavalry wenton ahead to cutoff the retreat •of the foremost fugitives and' check the progress of the others, the* horse artillery fired; volley after" volley ; qlf grape into the dense , masses b'ellmdj-.'and ihep' the infantry followed with, the bayonet and massacred all whose wounds or exhaustion left them powerless to escape. When darkness prevented any more slaughter,; the . troops returned ' home, and Skobeleff telegraphed to the ! Emperor triumphantly : that " 8000 Tekkes had been hacked to pieces !" This massacre of the unfortunate Turcomans provoked a certain amount of adverse comment on the part of the English press at the time, but it was assumed that the fugitives were .all of them men with weapons- in their hands, aud hence little was made of the slaughter by most newspapers. It now appears, however, that ,this was not the l case. In his official report, from which i: we take this "atrocity," for it is nothing more than "atrocity/ General Skobeleff pens calmly the words :— "ln this pursuit by our dragoons and Cossacks, sustained by the troops of horse artillery, were killed upwards of 8000 persons, of both sexes." Further on, in recounting the triumphs of the siege, he says After the capture of the stronghold ,we buried, inside it 6500 bodies. During the pursuit 8000 were killed." There is not a word of extenuation that the massacre of the women and children was unintentional and done in the heat of. pursuit. . Sko^ beleff treats the slaughter as a matter of course, and a thing of common occurrence in ' Russian warfare, and to be rather recounted "with pride than, explained away by excuses.