To the Editor of the "Norrn-Caisa Day News."
Sir,—It has been known that the Swedish Red Cross worker Dr. Sven Hedblom was murdered the bandit Kalmikoff's criminal followers, and now your Vladivostok correspondent in yesterday's paper gives us a full account of the horrible deed, with the names of the miscreants: Salamakhin, Evreinoff and the Serb Yulenek.
It deserves to be made publicly known that the accusation of Hed blem's being a German spy was an invention of the Cossack bandits to get rid of him, in order to con-coal that they had robbed him of a couple of hundred thousand roubles, money belonging to the Swedish Red Cross. The 8. R. C. had advanced considerable sums of money to the maintenance of the German and Austrian prisoners of war camped at. Habarovsk, and Dr. Hedblom had been travelling to Tientsin to settle accounts with the German Hiilfs-Action, which by the Ger. man government had been directed to square up the accounts, transfer of money through Sweden at that time being difficult, owing to imibility of communication vid Siberia and Russia.
Kalmikoff had just then begun his bandit career and held some 50 miles of the railwaylino from Pogranichnaia (Suifunho) in the direction of Nikolsk-Ussuriysk. and in front of him to the cast stood Bolshevist forces. Hedblom arriving from Tientsin to Harbin had to pass these two zones in order to reach Habarovsk, and at Pogranichnaia he was robbed of the Red Cross money as well os of his private means, some 10 thousand roubles. He was brought back to Harbin, where the Russian Secret Service' investigated his without finding any guilt He was released and remained for two-thres weeks in Harbin efforts to regain the money. He saw General Horvath several times, and according to Hedblom's words Gen. Horvath declared himself decidedly against such "expropriation' as related, but added that, he was absolutely powerless against such adventurers as Kalmikoff, Simionov. ete. However, Hedblom succeeded in getting back his own money and obtaining some sort of assurance that the Red Cross mon: would be paid back upon investigation of the purpose for which he had said it was intended.
Having achieved this result and. being anxious to be back at his post Dr. Hedblom left for Habarovsk by the Sungari-Amur_ river route. and when later on Kalmikoff seized the town, he was arrested and murdered, as we said, to cover up the track of a previous crime.
Here we have another case of war criminals, which certainly must be "demanded" some day, if justice is to prevail.
I am, ete., Ose Wuo Kyew Svex Hepstom. i, Feb. 19.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.