RED RULE.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1920, Page 10

RED RULE.

AN AIfiPALLING STOUY. TWO IRISH GIRLS IN KIEFF. London, Feb. 3. Two Irish girls—the Misses May and Ei'een Healy, daughters of Mr. Thomas Healy, former Nationalist M.P- for Wexford, and nieces of Mr. Timothy Healy, KC—have just reached London, having escaped from Kietf 'with nothing but the clothes —thin linen dresses —they were wearing. These ladies have been in Russia for eight years as governesses, and have been in Kieff during each period of Bolshevist rule. When they left, the Bolshevists were only 25 miles off, and the guns of the Reds were again heard in the city. Tliey tell a terrible story of Bolshevist outrage, of which they were personal witnesses. They have been more than once turned out of their homes into the streets at a moment's notice, robbed of their possessions, and, although never subjected to personal violence, repeatedly threatened with death, Thev say that the mental strain was awful, and Miss Eileen Healy lias lost three stone in weight as a result of her sufferings. In describing tiie scene when Denikin's army relieved Kieff last September, after eight months of Bolshevism, Miss Eileen Healj r said:— "I shall never forget the day the Volunteer Army arrived. The people had been counting the hours for this relief, j'he terror-stricken population ruslied from their liomes, and when the Russian flag was hoisted over the Duma the city went mad with joy; the people sobbed and yelled with relief. The '.tow<l surged round General Bredoff, wrappoa his charger in a Russian flag, and carried him on their shoulders through the streets. The Reds had been compelled fo clear out so quickly that they had no time to hide the evidences of their crimes. "The next day," said Miss May Healv. "I was enabled to visit the various prisons of the Tchresvetchaika or Extraordinary Commission—eacn of which wa6 a veritable torture-house—scattered through the city. Though we had our suspicions, we had no idea of the horrors that had been perpetrated within their walls. I knew many, who entered them when the Reds had departed to look for missing relatives, who came out mad, and one lady friend of mine dropped dead on reaching the street. "One of these places 'Sadavoea 5' was an attractive villa with a small garden. In a side building, a, sort of garage, I saw the walls covered with blood and brains. In the middle was cut a channel or drain full of congealed Mood, and tust outside in the garden 127 nude and

j mutilated corpses, including those of some women, were flung into a holeA STAIRCASE OF DEATH. "Tlißy 3iad been murdered the day previously, and the man who had removed the bodies from the shed told a horrible story. I. seems that the vie-; tims first had to strip and then formi Hp ill line with arms folded. The first j line lm<i to lie on their faces and were then shot. The strond row filed in and ■ *'<rok their places just behind the first .row, and si tow after row of corpses was piled np until there was what he described as a staircase of bleeding todies reaching almost.to the oriling of' ihs shed. "Some of the prisoners "would be incited to walk albout the garden, and, as a fonn of sport, the drunken Bolshevists 'potted' at them witih their Tevolvws, sometimes killing, sometimes wounding their victims. In the eelJan of -this prison were found a number., of -large hoses. In earl of these wero. two 0 r three naked todies. «Eve» when I left Kieff tlie aafhorities had . not completed fiheir ejearation?, bi;t already between -5.000 and 5,000 bndifs had been identified- Quite apart ir° m iiiese j-.trooiti.es, life in Kiefl' during th Tied oq upatioh was a time of tefror-'one nightmare. None ol ns feuew wieii we would be arrested, and there was always shooting and firing in the streets. When we went to bed we never knew whether we should live to the next day, and after a while I think perhaps some of us did not care. "Ten Bolshevists occupied the room next to mine. There was a beautiful drawing room. There, night after night, they carried on drunken orgies of an unspeakable character with women they had brought in from the town, and II lay on my bed with the door barricaded until, from sheer exhaustion, I went to sleep. "The terrorism of the Reds is reallv much worse than anything I have read of, and to those in this countrv who believe the story is exaggerated I would only say, 'Go out and see for yourselves.' "The last time the Bolshevists came into Kieff—on October la—they only remained 24 hours, and that they were unable to stay longer was entirely due to the working people of Kieff—people who, at the beginning were Bolfhevists, but had their illusions destroyed very soon. ATl'.en they knew the Beds were approaching .the city they organised, formed themselves into bands, and soon drove off their former comrades. But the scenes, as some 65,000 of ihe population departed, leaving ill behind them, to escape the feared terror, was tragic to a degree. Old men and women, young children, families' of all classes streamed out to the other side of the Dieper, sobbing and crying, while Bolshevists in the city threw boiling water and vitriol from their windows on the terror-stricken refugees. Many of these offenders were Jews and the feeling against them was terrible. Yet the stories of pogroms are quite untrue. There was none in Kieff, and although there were undoubtedly cases of private vengeance, Denikin's officers made almost superhuman efforts to provent attacks." Towards the end of her stay, Miss May Healy was living in a house just outside Kieff where she was hiding some Russian officers. Some Bolshevist agents got to hear of this and she only escaped a few hours before the whole place was gutted and destroyed. Eventually the two ladies succeeded in travelling via Taganrog and Novo Rossisk to Constantinople, whence they shipped by steamer to England—Renter.