HEROES AS BEGGARS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 6, 26 May 1914, Page 8

HEROES AS BEGGARS.

TORT ARTHUR DEFENDERS LEFT TO STARVE. NATION'S INGRItATITUDE. Pitiful stories of a eoaintfy's) ingratitude towards -those wiho had fought and hied for her wore told in the 6t Peters:buirg District Court, wihen a volunteer I soldier named Pimenoff, who -received the! 'highest order of the St.. George's Cross! —w.hioh corresponds with the Victoria! Cross in England—was brought, up for, trial on a charge of spreading 'knowingly fiaUe wbafcemente taaicufated t(oi excite enmity towards the Government." The prisoner received) five wounds during the Japanese war; seven tim©s he had to horse shot under 'him, and lie w'm one of 'the 'handful of the Russian survivors of the Homeric fight on Eagle's ! Nest. Ilia only sion was fcilled in battle •} and When Mmenoff returned from' the! front, he found iiimseJf , with out niiaans ; ,of_ subsiistene. Many other maimed "Knights of Sb. George" wore in -the same plight, and in order to draw attention to. their destitute .state PimonjoifT wrote a putaiplifct called, "From the Diary of an Arthurian," in •wlhich he described how they were forced on to the streets andi forced to 'beg for food, which, lie sail!,; was a disgrace to the Russian uniform IConsidejing the pity and' indignation excrt&d in St. Petersburg and other cities by- the appearance of these starving cripples it lis hairdly -surprising, states Renter's -St. Petersburg correspondent, that Pimenoff ha® l>ocn acquitted

£3 A YE Alt PENSION. • Nearly all t'ho witnesses for tli-c defence Jia<l won in, baittle distinction "for valour." Tfliej.r' evidence was as pathetic as their appearance. One poor fellow was led into court by a little girl/ He was completely blind, and had an artificial throat, his l utterance being almrdt inccraiprehensihle. .The only pension he received was one of £'i 12s a year. Another witness, twice wounded at Port Arthur, who lias three children, of whom ibwo are now in the hospital, related that tlw War Ministry only gave him 4s annually, and then he was* obliged, to beg. A third witness, also wounded at Port Arthur, said that during, the last three years lie had received in all £4 16s. COOO MILE JOURNEY. A veteran of the ItiMso-Turkish war, who participated in) the sltowning oi Tvars, desoribed 'how he, tnio, was reduced to beggary. Then, again, thwe whs an unpen.siomxl soldier who fought in twenty engagements during the RussoJapanese Avar, and aftor being wounded at Port Arthur lay tor three days ttnd nights among the dead. He was recommended for the St. 'George's Cra**, but through some mistake or other did not obtain it. 'He travelled nearly fiOOO miles to try to ge,t .the error rectified, bui "hitherto his efforta ha-l been fruitless, and lie mis now a beggar. So the pitiful stories continued. The impress of truth was upon tham. and the Public Prosecutor aflkod that the minimum sentence should be pasacd on Pimenofi'. The court, however, acquitted the prisoner, who had previously started tihat his only object in issuing his pamphlet was to enlist the support of influential p"isons on be.lia.lf ol the unfortunate victim* of the war.