Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/147

 Relying on this, in fact, incorrect communication, the witnesses, who now feel unrestricted, begin to speak. The said captain had come to the army service corps of the Red Guard the day after the murder of Mikkola, and boasted before the officials there that he had already murdered thirteen persons, and, amongst other things, said, "this war-Antti had a hard pate." At the same time it was brought to light that the captain had acted as executioner, while it was his mayor who had ordered the murder. The affair ought, therefore, to be plain enough.

It was, unfortunately, only too plain. Besides these two murders, the commission had enquired into yet a third case: that of a working man who had been found shot in the street. He had been murdered by two former friends, who were now Red Guardsmen. It was unfortunate that the commission arrived at such plain results. On the 26th February it sends in two written communications to its Government. In the first it mentiones that Mikkola's murderers are "probably" the two above-mentioned persons, and is of opinion that they ought to be tried. But "as these persons are now at the front, and the commission do not find that their authority is sufficient to summon persons of the rank of officers, the commission must leave it to be decided by the Commander-in-Chief and the procurator whether steps should be taken, and in that case—what steps."

The other communication is of the following tenor:—

"The Commission does hereby communicate that its work cannot be continued any longer, on account of the defective composition of the Commission, and because the Red Guard does not regard it with a favourable eye. The three representatives elected to the Commission by the Red Guard have not taken part in its work, and