Page:Albert Beaumont - Heroic Story of the Czecho-Slovak Legions - 1919.djvu/71

 arrived by the beginning of May. It was known that the Moscow Goverment had given strict orders to suspend our movement entirely. One of the excuses they offered was that they could not continue to convey our troops such vast distance, and that they would see to our transport vià Murmansk. They also referred to the rumours that the Finns were moving to cut off the railway line to Murmansk and that the Russian troops had to prepare to fight them. We had been armed in Russia, and it was our duty to fight with the Russians against the Finns. It was an evident trap for us, and our delegates refused to be led into it. The encouragement given by the Bolsheviks in Siberia to the German, Austrian, and Magyar prisoners was proof that they intended no good to us. Whilst they hampered our movement, they favoured that of the German and Austrian ex-prisoners, who obtained trains and were beginning to come from Siberia in shoals. It was the arrival of these prisoners that caused the incident at Cheliabinsk.

Three trains with ex-prisoners—Germans, Austrians, and Magyars—reached the Cheliabinsk Station in the beginning of May when one of our echelons was there. The ex-prisoners had exhausted their provisions, and complained that they were starving. Our soldiers, out of compassion, shared their rations with them, and gave them part of their own bread. The Germans, instead of being grateful for this kindness, remained sullen, and behaved arrogantly. This was quickly noticed by our own men, who then kept away from them. On the morning of May 14 one of the prisoner trains started moving out of the station. As it did so, the Germans in their cars shouted insults at our men, who were standing and looking on. As the last car was moving out of the station a German flung a big iron bar into a group of our soldiers. The bar struck a Czech on the head, causing a deep wound, and he fell in a swoon. It looked as if he had been killed. He certainly was gravely injured. Our men’s wrath was up in an instant. The whole echelon started after the moving train, and compelled the engine-driver to stop. The Germans in the last car were surrounded, the miscreant who had flung the iron bar was seized, and thoroughly beaten. He died from his injuries.

The excitement at the station was intense. There was a garrison of 2,000 Soviet troops at Cheliabinsk, and the Bolshevik guards intervened. It was decided to appoint a commitee of inquiry, and the local Soviet, as we knew later, sent a telegram to Moscow considerably distorting the facts. Some of our soldiers were summoned by the commitee as witnesses, and when they presented themselves were kept under arrest. A delegation of our officers and men then went to the Soviet to ask for their release. The Bolsheviks, without further ceremony, also arrested