OCR Text |
Show COSSACKS TELL OF THEFT AND OTHER CRIMES ARCHANGEL. Saturday, April 5. By the Associated Press.) The theft of 4.000,000 Bolshevik rubles by a band of Circassian Cossack officers, whoso activities activ-ities also included the arrest of the American consul at Archangel and the kidnaping of the North Russian government, govern-ment, was explained at the trial of the officers today before the supreme judicial ju-dicial authority of northern Russia. The officers, amor.fr whom wore Captain Bers and Colonel Melt a. were convicted 1 and sent eneea to Imprisonment and 'deprivation of their rank and decorations. decora-tions. Because of their military valor, 'the court recommended that they be pardoned. The defendants unfolded an astonishing astonish-ing story of the inner details of the days before allied troops landed at Arch- an pel and of the political plots that oc-; oc-; curred afterward. They admitted near-i near-i ly every accusation, pledging old Cossack : laws and the political situation as jus-' jus-' tif ication. Cossacks Remain Behind. Last July, when an allied landing at .-Vrchar.gei seemed imminent. Captain Bers and the other Cossacks were i aligned with the Bolsheviki. As the allied al-lied troops approached the city, the bulk of the Bolshevik force fled, but Bers and the Cossacks remained behind, as did Colonel Potapoif. the Bolshevik commander, com-mander, who was arrested Inter. ! Captain L e r seized the sa f e n t a i n -ir.g the K-i?hevik war fund of 4,noo,0,'1' rubles. Then, with Colonel Potapoff. the Cossacks arrested the American consul, 1 Felix Cole; the British and French const con-st :s and the French military mission, i Tho allied officials were taken to a barn ; and hidden, the Cossacks holding them a?'d the money s hostages until somc-' somc-' thins definite hi opened. W hen the allied landing and t lie local j counter revolution broke almost simul- taneously on August 1-2. t he consuls j were released, the Cossacks, however, i after declaring themselves ready to sup- p'"rt.the new government and claiming; that they were secretly against the Pol- sheviki throughout, kept the 4,000.000 , rubles n s a Cossack prize of war. I At th trial it wts revealed that the ' mny furnished the financial sinews for j the at temp ed coup against the North Russian government early l: September i when, undr the direction of Colonel ' Tehapiin. the Cossacks kidnaped Prest- dent Tsebaiknvsky and other members 1 of the provisional government at mid- night and spirited them away to a lonely lone-ly monastery near the 'White sea. Money Used in Coup. P w.is largely through h Initiative of American Ambassador Fronds that the attempted coup wafi frustrated Htid the member of th government r"leas"d and reinstated in their nffi.. Th defendants defend-ants said that nrj'-h money wis spent in bribtrg various o(fi-iai3 not to lnfr-for lnfr-for with the kidnaping. political conditions con-ditions were plad"1 as justification for arresting the members of the provisional government. From. s"ii ,e fouc t h df "-d.i r. ' . W'VP able to res'or ail of tbe 4, r..".o ribie thev had takn and they have handed the mony ever to the pr'Tt govern- j n-.ent. The men we- tried on n .-harir ; of taking flir t!- bei"r.ging to the gov- j ernmen. |