RUSSIA.

Taihape Daily Times, 30 September 1918, Page 5

RUSSIA.

’RUSSIAN RiEIGN OF TERROR. HORRIBLE MASSACRES DAILY. NEW YORE, Sept 27. The New York “Times” correspondent at Washington reports that the State Department has received official information regarding the Russian reign of terror in Bolshevik territory. On September Sth an order was issued in Moscow for the arrest of all members of the British Diplomatic Mission, the French Consul general, and Military Attache. They took refuge in the American Consulate, with the exception of the British Consul, who was imprisoned in the Kremlin. 'Advices dated September 4th said massacres of Russian citizens were continuing in Moscow, that approximately 150 executions occurred nightly, and that more than 1000 people were shot in retaliation for the attempt on Lenin’s life. On Setpe.mber 15 the most violent element of the Bolsheviks controlled Petrograd. People were arrested en masse. It is not known how many were shot daily at Kronstadt. HORRORS OF RUSSIA. FROM A GERMAN NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENT. Received 9.45 a.m. LONDON, September 28 The Lokal Anzoiger’s Moscow correspondent, telegraphing in the middle of September, gives . a frightful account of the red terror He said a red billow of blood is flowing from Moscow over the whole Empire. The Bolshevik leaders declare the red terror will purify the atmosphere, saying the- executions are nothing compared with the millions sacrificed in the war. During the whole French revolution not, so many .aristroera.ts perished as were executed in Russia last month," with only the faintest show of trial. An extraordinary commission, with branches and sub-branches in the provinces, are ordering'executions as they please. The last decree ordering the seizure and execution of bourgoious as hostages whenever counter-revolution-aries create a disturbance is surpassing any previous horrors. The recent executions include former ministers to the Czar, viz., Tschcglowilof, Chwostoff, Makaroifi, Protopopoff: and many others playing’ an important part in the most recent history. They were brought before a court and ordered to reveal all the secrets of the Czar’s Government, and were afterwards dragged from their cells at dead of night conveyed to Petrovsky Park. and shot by sailors. Details of these wholesale nocturnal executions are kept secret; they take place in a guarded square brilliantly lighted with arc lamps, where a squad of soldiers is always kept in readiness to receive the victims from the prisons. No time is wasted nor pity expended. The majority meet death with dignity. Executions in the provinces' include numbers of well-born women and priests. The executioners become victims of the execution habit, and like morphia maniacs, are eagerly volunteering their services and are unable to sleep unless they have shot someone dead Several grand dukes and members of the Kerensky Cabinet are kept in prison in Moscow. The Bolsheviks laughingly tell the people, “Don’t he impatient, they are only spared till a little later.” Relatives of hostages know nothing of the day or hoyr of execution. Wives, mothers, and sweethearts are ignorant of the fate of loved ones, and go everywhere seeking tidings. The wholesale terror has had a hludgeon-like effect and so cowed the timorised population that whole Moscow could be put to the Svvord without an insurrection. AUSTRO-HUNGARIANS DISARMED. . , Received 12 noon, TIENTSIN, Sept 28. Chino-Japanese troops have disarmed 1500 Austro-Hungarians in the vicinity of Blagovestchenko. — — ,,