The correspondent of the Associated Press, telegraphing from Archangel on August 18 says:
No trace was found of the body of the Tsar Nicholas when the Czecho-Slovaks captured Ekaterinburg on July 2, according to information brought to Mr. Francis by an officer of the Czech army, who has arrived in Archangel with despatches from the American consul at Ekaterinburg after a long and perilous trip through two lines of hostile Bolsheviks. The officer said there was no definite information as to how the Tsar╒s body had been disposed of, but the most credited report was that it had been taken to the deepest pit in the Ekaterinburg coal mine, where it was destroyed. The officer had been unable to learn the whereabouts of the Tsar╒s family; he only knew that they had been spirited away from Ekaterinburg.
The execution of the Tsar took place on July 16. So far as the officer had been able to learn, the Commandant of the Ekaterinburg Soviet, who was reported to be a sailor, killed the Tsar with a revolver. A Red Guard who had first been commanded to kill the Tsar refused, as also did a Leftish firing party. The Commandant then drew his revolver and shot the Tsar dead. The officer, however, had heard many other versions of the affair.
The officer stated that Cossack troops entered Ekaterinburg on July 28, the main body of the Czechs arriving two days later. The Bolsheviks in their flight carried off with them a large quantity of gold and platinum. The officer, in disguise, left Ekaterinburg on August 2 and passed through the hostile lines to the west of Vologda, at which place he believed the Allied Embassies to be. When he learnt that they had left he made his way through another hostile army. He declares that the Czechs, Poles, Cossacks, and Volunteers form a great united army, which is making steady progress and winning battles. The officer states that the Bolshevik communiques are lies and that the Czech forces are welcomed by the inhabitants of the villages through which they pass with gifts of food and flowers.
