Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1905 — SURRENDER OF THE POTEMKINE [ARTICLE]

SURRENDER OF THE POTEMKINE

Mutineer* All Get Away— Ru**l* will Probably Eater a Pretest. The surrender of the Potemkine has raised a question between Russia and Roumania that may give trouble. The warship entered Klistenjl harbor and the crew was colled upon by the Roumanian authorities to surrender or leave port at once. A Roumanian officer boarded the ship and gave the crew this alternative, at the same time informing them that if they surrendered they would be treated as foreign deserters. The crew accepted the terms of surrender and the report from Kustenjl says its members will be conveyed to the frontier and there liberated. It is this stlpulatlonr-Jtreatment of the crew as deserters—that is likely to cause trouble. No diplomatic steps have l>een taken, but the foreign office undoubtedly will make the strongest representations against the mutineers being treated as simple deserters, and demand their surrender to answer not only for mutiny, but also for the murder of tbelr officers, the bombardment

of Odessa and incitement to «. revolution. It Is thought here to bo impemtive that the sternest justice be mated out to the ringleaders, ae an example to the fleets of Russia and of the whole world. The torpedo treat that accompanied the Potemkine did not surrender, but left port, her crew declaring that she bnd accompanied the Potemkine because she was forced to do so. Admiral Kruger has arrived at Kustenjl and the Potemkine was at once turned over to him by the Roumanian authorities. On board tije mutiny ship everything was in disorder, says an Associated Press correspondent, who went aboard. The officers’ cabins were stripped of everything of any value, and bloodstains were every where. There wns sufficient ammunition aboard the Kniaz Potemkine to have enabled the mutineers to make a desperate resistance. -—— It Is said that during the last few days of her cruise the vessel was navigated by two engineers and an officer with revolvers at their heads. All of the sailors wished to surrender with the exception of Matuschenko, the lead>er of the mutiny, who resisted for some time and wanted to blow up the ship. Seven officers were prisoners aboard the Kniaz Potemkine. They were in a pitiable condition from ill treatment. They declare that Matuschenko himself killed ten officers of the battleship.