Going to the police-station he ovtained the services of an inspector, who was present when the car was opened, and it was found that five bales of merchandise were missing Owing to the formalities that were necessary, for all the cargo had to be reweighed as well as checked, it was impossible for our train to wait until this was done, so special watchmen had to be engaged te bring along the car by the next train. It is apparent that the robbery in this case was planned beforehand and performed by a gang of railway thieves well up in the work and that the contents of the car were known to them. The cars evidently had been taken some way down the line where the one which was robbed was uncoupled and left for a while, afterwards being hitched on to the end of the train, this accounting for the fact that it occupied a different position in the morning. The militia who took up the matter expressed their opinion that, as little time had elapsed since the robbery had taken place, they would manage to get hold of the guilty men and immediately sent out a strong search party.
BousHEvism AN INcITEMENT TO
It seems probable that railway employees are the guilty parties. Their lot has been a hard one for the past nine months for during this time they have been without ray and get nothing but very meagre rations. During the last four months of the Simionov regime they also worked for nothing. Dire necessity has no doubt driven them to the committing of crimes. It is now the business of the railway authorities to put an immediate stop to this sort of thing otherwise merchants will begin to boycott thy railway.
At the station Andranovka, the Jumb of the second car belonging to my friend was deliberately 1e-moved by the railwaymen who checks the car numbers, this act necessitating the uncoupling o? the car, for once the seal is broken, the contents must be examined before it can proceed further. A special watchman was left benind to watch the car till it arrived at Chita. As a matter of fact nothing had been taken, out, but though my friend offered to give the station-master a paper to the fect that the contents were intact so as to let the car continue its journey with us, this was refussd_ Had the owner of the car not been on the train, no doubt when the car reached Chita there would have been something missing, for the car remained overnight at Andranovka.
The newly appointed Chinese High Commissioner to the F.E.R. together with his staff was also travelling by our train, having in addition to their private car a boxcar filled with personal effects. Some time before Chita was reach ed it was discovered that the latter car had one of its ends ripped o, en to the extent of three feet and that two packages of bedding nad boom extracted, one of which contained some $600 in coin. The doors of this car were padlocked, so the robbers adopted new tactics the robbery taking place during the night after leaving the station Karimskaya. Three other boy-cars also attached to our train but without their owners were also broken into. The amount of the goods stolen is so far not known.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.