After the March revolution, and especially after the fall of Riga, the efforts of the German agents, with whom Finland now fairly swarmed, were directed toward fomenting Finnish separatism. In fact, the Swedish press asserted that from the very beginning of the war the Germans had spent large sums of money in trying to fan the Finns' smoldering discontent with Russia. At the same time Germany endeavored to enlist the sympathies of the White Guards, (skudshär,) which the middle classes were hastily organizing, ostensibly for the purpose of assisting the militia and protecting the population from robbers. Berlin was so successful in its task that as early as October, 1917, the head of the Russian Bureau of Counterespionage in Finland spoke of the skudskär as "the vanguard of the German Army." The Finns who served in Wilhelm's army and were thoroughly indoctrinated with German military science and German ideals were returned to their native country, and it was they that took upon themselves to officer the White Guards. Some of the weapons and munitions used by the latter were secured from Sweden, but most of them came from Germany and were probably a part of the Russian booty. The above-mentioned Russian official declared, in an interview published in a Petrograd daily in October, 1917, that German submarines appeared regularly off the Finnish coast and delivered arms and ammunition to Finnish vessels. ATROCITIES ON BOTH SIDES The White Guards, commanded by General Mannerheim, fought the revolutionists with varying success but without achieving a decisive victory. Several towns in the south were the scene of prolonged battles in which many lives were lost, notably Tammerfors, the important industrial centre, where fierce fighting raged throughout the second half of March. The factory districts in the north were also the scene of stubborn fighting. A number of women were seen in the ranks of the Red Guards. The two warring factions created a reign of "Red" and "White" terror in the country. Both committed frightful atrocities. On April 17, Oskari Tokoi, the Commissionary for Foreign Affairs in the Socialist Cabinet, protested to all the powers against the manner in which General Mannerheim treated his Red Guard prisoners. He pointed out that, while the Red Guards regarded the captured White Guards as prisoners of war, the Government troops, having taken a number of prisoners, shot all the officers and every fifteenth man of the rank and file. On the other hand, the corpses of many White Guards were found unspeakably mutilated.