Page:Albert Beaumont - Heroic Story of the Czecho-Slovak Legions - 1919.djvu/41

 It is now time to revert to Captain “S’s“ story, which supplements that of his colleague in many particulars, and brings us up to the days of the Russian revolution in 1917. Captain “S.,“ whose story I left off at Kieff, proceeded:

I was kept only one day at Kieff, and our train started at once for Kursk, Dambov, Pensa, and Samara. Then I learned that we were to be sent south-east to Turkestan, but it made little differenee to us whether we were sent thither or to Siberia. Our train proceeded slowly to Orenburg, thence to Casalinsk, Turkestan, and Tashkent, where we arrived on April 21, after a journey of twenty days. Most of the country we traversed was flat, and Turkestan is a vast, sandy plain, with only scanty pasture for sheep, of which we saw numerous flocks. After leaving Orenburg we got into the country of the Kirghises, and began to see men with oblique eyes and general Mongolian features.

There were only fifteen Czecho-Slovaks in our convoy, and we got no special privileges. We travelled in a forth-class carriage, with sleeping accommodation on wooden shelves. At Tashkent we were told that we would have our liberty, but would have to take some employment. I was asked if I would undertake the direction of a prison camp at Samarkand, and I immediately consented. I had no idea ot the magnitude of the task or the weight of responsibility. I left the very next day. Tashkent was already full of prisoners, with many Czechs, and a lot more were coming after the fall of Przemysl. Convoys, with more than 11,000 men on board, were already due. Samarkand is 300 kilometres south, and I got there the same day. I stayed in the town, bought myself a civilian suit with the 100 kronen that I had in my belt the time of my surrender, and then drove in a carriage to the camp which I was to direct, about seven kilometres from the town. I was immediately placed in charge. The camp contained about 45,000 prisoners, 2,000 of whom were Czecho-Slovaks, the rest being Magyars, Austrians, and Ruthenians.

I had travelled to Samarkand with six other Czech officers, each of whom was also to be at the head of a camp. The Russians seemed to place great confidence in us Czechs, and we gave them nothing to complain of. My first work was to separate the Czechs, my countrymen, from the others and when I had done so I found employment for nearly all of them in field labour, with which they were very pleased. The responsibility of the camp was enormous. I had to see to every detail, the provisioning, the cooking, and the general discipline. I found that I could not do all that was required of me, even by getting up at five a. m. and working till nine and ten at night. The colonel was friendly enough to me and my Czechs, but he was even more kindly disposed