Dowager Empress refuses to leave Russia

February 3, 1919

Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia refuses to leave Russia until she learns the fates of her sons, Nicholas II and Grand Duke Michael, according to a report in today's New York Times.
Empress Marie remains at Yalta, and as declined requests from King Ferdinand and Queen Marie of Roumania to join her at their home. She has also turned down a request from her sister, Queen Alexandra. She does not believe that her sons are dead, and has remained optimistic about their fate. This optimism is based on "the fact that much unfavorable news has been concealed from her." Lt. Col., J.W.Boyle, a Canadian, was sent to Yalta by King Ferdinand, says Marie's "hopefulness is convincing." She and her friends are convinced that the Bolshevik accounts of Nicholas's murder at Ekaterinberg and Michael's death at Perm are incorrect. Lt. Col. Boyle does not believe a report from Czech officers on the investigation of the Imperial family's murder, where buttons and jewels belonging to Alexandra and her daughters were found in the ashes where the bodies of the Romanovs were supposed to have been burned. Boyle does not consider the report's findings to be "conclusive evidence."