Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/143

 nothing, to put a stop to the regular mania for theft and murder raging in their ranks. Here the proclamations against cruelties bow and again published in their papers cannot come under consideration; they were not designed for their own bands, but for the audience—i.e., the foreign countries, and especially Sweden. Besides, the proclamations regularly contained such a number of accusations against the White that they acted more like incitements than dampers. And between them column after column was filled with the most blood-curdling descriptions of the cruelty and bloodthirstiness of the White. The service at the front did not in general please the Red—not a few meetings of the men resolved that the troops had had enough of offensive operations and now intended to pass over to guard service in their homes. It was therefore desired to force them to see the necessity for fighting; if for no other reason, so as not to fall into the hands of the wild beast White. In the meanwhile the many and lengthy descriptions also resulted in the behaviour of the Red becoming cruel beyond all description. Perhaps this was not the intention, but it was the natural consequence.

We shall now proceed to the consideration of the darkest chapter in the history of the Red insurrection, the murders behind the front.

How many unarmed persons have fallen victims to the lust for murder among the Red cannot, unfortunately, be accurately ascertained as yet. Many have disappeared, of whom their relatives have not yet given up all hope; now and again a dead body is still found in the woods; and the sea, as well as the lakes, may yet cast up many dead on the shore. But it is certain that the number exceeds one thousand. At least one thousand murders. And the murderers? Not one of them has been punished by the Red Government. This fact must be kept well