PETERS
In the early days of the revolution Peters was chief of the Internal Defense of Petrograd. American newspapers said of him that “his fingers were cramped from writing death warrants.” I asked him how many death warrants he had signed and he told me three hundred in all. He expressed regret that he had been looked upon in other countries as a murderer, and said it was unfortunate that those people did not understand the conditions that surrounded Russia while in the throes of a revolution. He insisted that the warrants he had signed had been necessary in the interest of the country as a whole, and that they had been signed only after investigation and a trial of the individuals, and that in no case had there been an execution to gratify the personal revenge of any one.
He is a Lett, very young, perhaps between twenty-eight and thirty years old, short and stocky, with a mass of black hair combed straight back. He lived in England for a number of years, and speaks the English language easily and fluently.