Rumor

Nicholas. Despatches reported that the entire staff of the Leningrad newspaper Krasnya were clapped into jail last week as accomplices in the publication of an article wherein the present Soviet Ambassador to Poland, M. Wykoff, is specifically charged with having poured quantities of sulphuric acid over the corpses of Tsar Nicholas II and his immediate family, after they had been shot dead at Ekatemburg, Russia, by Commandant Yurovski, former Tsarist officer.

The Krasnya's account bristled with suspiciously circumstantial details about a certain "orthodox nun" who claims to have ministered to the Imperial family up to the last moment. She is said to possess a letter in the autograph of the Tsar written to several would-be rescuers at Ekaterinburg: "The cherished moment has arrived; you will be able to act. The seventh and eighth windows from the main entrance are now always open. Our guards consist of 13 men armed with revolvers and bombs. All the keys are with the Commandant, who treats us well enough. If you can aid us to escape through the window, please inform us. If we must have our son drugged to make certain that he will not accidentally cry out, we will do so." "[Signed] Nicholas."

The nun was quoted as believing Yurovski suddenly resolved to assassinate the Imperial family when he discovered that Nicholas was communicating with loyal friends by means of such notes concealed in the hollow cork of a milk bottle. According to her account, a pet dog belonging to the young Tsarevitch commenced to howl inconsolably as soon as his master had been shot dead. This so worked upon the nerves of the murderer, Yurovski, that he seized the dog and dashed its brains out against a red-hot stove.

In commenting upon the behavior of the Imperial family, the nun alleged that the daughters of the Tsar "employed their graces" to gain the sympathy of the guards for their father and the Tsarevitch. The editor of Krasnya warmly defended his action in publishing the story: "I am a good Communist. ... I wanted people to know that the Tsar is really dead, because of the spread of a false rumor that Lord Kitchener smuggled him to a Buddhist monastery in Tibet. ... I want everyone to know that Comrade Wykoff annihilated the last vestige of the Tsar with sulphuric acid."

Anastasia. At Berlin the Danish Minister, Herlui Zahle, confirmed rumors that King Christian X of Denmark has been assisting his aunt, the aged Dowager Empress Dagmar, widow of Tsar Alexander III, to pursue a careful inquiry as to whether a certain "Frau von Tchaikovski" now in a Berlin sanitarium is really the Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II. "Frau von Tchaikovski" is suffering from complete nervous and mental breakdown, and bears the scars of bullet wounds on her scalp and abdomen. Two former servants of the Grand Duchess Anastasia have positively identified

"Frau von Tchaikovski" as their former mistress on the basis of certain birthmarks. Dr. Rudness, sometime physician to Nicholas II, now a refugee at Berlin, admitted to correspondents that he had examined the mysterious "Frau," but refused to affirm or deny that she is the Grand Duchess.