The New York Times/1918/11/11/Declares Terrorism Reigns in Russia
DECLARES TERRORISM REIGNS IN RUSSIA
AN ATLANTIC PORT, Nov. 10.—Four hundred passengers arrived today from Northern Europe on the Norwegian-American liner Bergensfjord and were permitted to land without being held up in Quarantine twenty-four hours by the immigration authorites and the Customs Intelligence Department, as has been done since the United States entered the war.
The Rev. George Simons, Superintendent and Treasurer of the American Methodist Episcopal Church in Russia and pastor of the American M.E. Church in Petrograd, where he has resided for eleven years, was one of the passengers. He was accompanied by his sister, Miss Ottilia Simons. In speaking of conditions in Russia the Rev. Mr. Simons said that if the threatened massacre of the people by th eBolshevists took place in Russia today, it would be followed by the greatest pogrom the world has ever seen.
"Persons are shot down by the Bolshevist guards without any pretext or warning," he said, "and a state of terrorism exists where the Bolshevists are in control. Guards enter private houses at night and terrorize the inmates with forged papers supposed to be orders for their arrest and ransack the rooms for valuables and shoot down any one who ventures to oppose them.
"For a time the Bolshevists were friendly to me in Petrograd and my house was not molested. Then there came a change, and agents came at 2:30 in the morning and offered a bribe of 5,000 rubles to a private policeman, who slept in front of the door, to let them in. They said that they wanted to go in and massacre the people inside and loot the premises. He was faithful to me and declined to accept the bribe, which was afterward set as a price on my head by the Bolshevist heads in Petrograd."
Two other passengers on the Bergensfjord from Russia, who went through some thrilling experiences were George B. Francke, a russian banker, and his wife, who was imprisoned for twenty-two months before she managed to escape as a Red Cross nurse. Mr. Francke said that the Bolsheviki were looking for him because he was suspected of aiding his wife to escape, and he only got away through the aid of friends by joining the Red Guards. Other passengers who arrived yesterday were Major Malcolm McB Bell-Irving of Vancouver, B.C., who served in France with the Royal Air Force until he was severely wounded, losing a leg, and Colonel P. Flaschl of Sydney, New South Wales, who is one of 7,000 Australians remaining of the original force of 26,000 who volunteered in 1914.