Ambassador Meyer to the Secretary of State.
St. Petersburg, October 31, 1906.
Sir: I beg leave to report that while about 600,000 rubles were being conveyed in a close carriage escorted by six mounted gendarmes from the maritime custom-house to the provincial treasury, a bomb was thrown under the horses, killing one outright and wounding the other. The gendarmes’ horses bolted and the coachman fled. The occupants of the carriage were uninjured, but dazed. Meanwhile the carriage was surrounded by the robbers, the money bags seized and passed on to a woman in a droshky, who drove off at great speed, leaving the men to carry on the fight. More bombs were then thrown, and the gendarmes by this time began using their rifles, aided by the police and private watchmen.
It is a wonder that a number of people were not killed by the fusillade. The casualties were three gendarmes, an accountant, three watchmen, one woman, and one boy, all wounded; one watchman killed and one robber killed, five afterwards arrested. I examined the place the next day, which was in the center of the city on one of the most frequented thoroughfares, and found that the windows in a house on one side of the street were shattered, which was the extent of the damage.
It appears now that the bombs had been manufactured for the purpose of making a noise and alarming the people, rather than for destruction. The amount of money carried off amounted to 366,000 rubles.
I have, etc.,