Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/46

 undisciplined as it is, may be withdrawn from the country.

3rd November. Before the lower court at Åbo a case is proceeding against six persons arrested for the theft of butter. Suddenly 50 Russian marine soldiers, armed with rifles with fixed bayonets, force their way in and surround both judge and prisoners. Two sailors take their stand on either side of the prosecutor and direct their revolvers against him. Then the court is ordered with threats of revolvers and rifles to release the prisoners. As the bench remain silent, the soldiers themselves release the prisoners, seize all the papers of the court, and take their departure with the six happy thieves.—Two soldiers force their way into a shop, knock down the shop-girl and rob the till.—board-school teacher and his wife are fired at without cause as they are walking along a country road. They succeed in concealing themselves in a wood. The pursuing soldiers fire about forty shots at them.—A gentleman is attacked one night in the heart of Helsingfors by two marine soldiers, they catch hold of his head from behind and stab him in the chest. A book he carries in his pocket saves him.

The days from the 4th to the 7th November furnish the following illustrations: A fight in a dancing-saloon with stabbing and revolver shooting. Russian soldiers seize without ceremony 300 kgs. of tin; when the owner appears, the soldiers try to arrest him; he escapes into a house, is fired at, returns the fire; the house is surrounded, the man is seized, bound, and taken to the Russian barracks.—A drunken soldier fires several shots through a window, the bullets hit the wall just above the bed of a sleeping child. After that the man shoots down the streets and breaks some windows. Seven house-searches without results are made by Russian soldiers.—Soldiers commit burglary in a school and a factory.—In the