Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/139

 their homes at Helsingfors now tried to get into the city at night. Some were successful, but the greater part were captured and shot, either on the ice in the harbours of the city, or in the streets. Many of these people were schoolboys or young students belonging to the most noted families in the capital, and these murders were of a particularly revolting character.

When later on the western corps stood face to face with destruction, the Swedish Ambassador at Helsingfors intervened, and succeeded in concluding an agreement in consequence of which the White, who had already been driven out of their fortified positions, surrendered to the Red. The latter on their side promised to permit Swedish control of the treatment of the prisoners. In this way a collection of 600 White prisoners of war got into the hands of the Red, and these 600 were excellently suited for advertising the humane warfare of the Red in Sweden.

For it must be remembered that the Red had a wholesome fear that Sweden would take proceedings against them, and they did what they could to create an opinion in their favour in this country, strong enough to prevent all official interference. As one of the many weapons used in the campaign, the 600 prisoners were employed. The latter were, however, a thorn in the flesh of the Red Guard, and more than once, at the meetings of the officers of the Guard, a just indignation was expressed that they were too well treated, and also discontent with the Swedish interference on the whole. Thus on the 7th March, at a meeting of officers, a deputation is chosen which is to lay before the General Staff the desire of the assembly that the Swedish Consul should not interfere with the treatment of the prisoners. But other forces acted in the opposite direction. We see this clearly, e.g., in the following communication on the telephone, from the staff of the Guard at Tammerfors to the Red