FALL OF ODESSA.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1920, Page 6

FALL OF ODESSA.

MASSACRE OF THE PEOPLE. TERRIBLE HAVOC WROUGHT. By Telegraph.— Vzess Assn.—Copyright. London, Feb. 14. The story of the Constantinople correspondent of the Daily Telegraph of the recapture and sack of Odessa is one of the most terrible chapters in the history of Bolshevism. I Eye-witnesses state that Odessa was taken, not by the war operations of the Bolsheviks, but by the unprovoked rising of the dregs of the population, in which thousands were massacred. These armed looters; and murderers knew that the spirit of the Volunteer forces in the city was utterly broken. The /insurrection could have been crushed in a few hours by resolute action, but resolution was the last thing to be expected from the Volunteer officers. There have been such enormous losses in the Volunteer rank and file, chiefly owing to typhus, that a continuous stream of superfluous officers flowed to Odessa, which was the one city of luxury behind Denikin's front. Twenty thousand of Denikin's officers were in the city when the havoc began on February s,'but not even a handful could be found'to organise the defence. Shilin, the general, commanding, -,- was amongst the first to quit the city. , The remaining officers looked on hopelessly while the looting of the defenceless city .proceeded day and night. ■•. .... The so-called fighting Was -nothing more than cold-blooded murder Which made the streets re-echo. Refugees believe that large numbers of officers' paid for their lack of initiative with their lives. The insurgents had nether the desire nor had they the ability tt> keep their prisoners. . Ac Ukrainian detachment for a while attempted to maintain order and then started to fight its way out to the Bessarabian frontier. Meanwhile, the quays wore more and more crowded with unending streams.of miserable fugitives demanding help from the British warships, the Ceres, Sportive and Ajax, whose behaviour in rescuing refugees was beyond praise. The seamen worthwith requisitioned every ship in the harbor and manned the icebreaker, without which probably nobody would have escaped- The British embarked 12,000, sadly leaving many times more still crowding the quays and falling under the Bolshevik maxims. There were one or two incidents worthy of record amid the welter of chaos and inefficiency. When not even a platoon of professional troops was willing to defend the' quays, the cadets, aged ten and upwards, maintained the defence, despite continuous casualties. The British rescued-all the survivors. Another gallant action was the salving of two nearly completed Russian torpedo boats, which necessitated cutting a passage through the ice. The arsenals and workshops are now in Bolshevik hands, constituting a constant menace to the Allies. The Rod cavalry by a forced march from Perekoff entered the city on the 9th. The correspondent adds that the utter collapse of Denikin's left wing changes the whole aspect in the Near East and the problem is now one of the gravest emergency. No settlement of the Turkish question can now pretend ■to be honest, unless it provides against the dangers which a month ago seemed wellnigh impossible..—Aus.-N.Z. Ca'jle Assn.