PRISONERS IN RUSSIA

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 150, 21 March 1921, Page 7

PRISONERS IN RUSSIA

REPORT'OF FOREIGN OFFICE

COMMITTEE. Something is already known of the terrible sufferings endured by British prisoners in Soviet Russia, and of the indignities heaped upon them by their Bolshevik gaolers, and the full story of tho ordeal to which they were subjected, now told in the report of the Foreign Office Committee appointed to rolled information on tho subject, reveals that the accounts already available have been in no wise exaggerated, says the "Daily Telegraph.” These British men and women. who were guilty of no offence, were tho victims of deliberate cruelty and brutality, inflicted under horrible and degrading conditions. Such food as wns supplied to them was little better than garbage; ' they were herded with notorious criminals in noisome and overcrowded cells, swarming with vermin and impregnated with -disease. It would be difficult to imagine a more miserable fate than that of those hapless beings, and the marvel is that they survived the physical and mental suffering which it involved.

While the evidence on which the report is based was derived mainly from the statements of the refugees themselves and other persons having knowledge of Russian prison conditions, documentary testimony is also available from official Soviet resources, the general tenor of which confirms the depositions made by British prisoners- It shows that the prisons were overcrowded, filthy, and verminous; that the sanitary provisions were inadequate, and that the food in many cases was of .bad quality, and in some below starvation level.

Having given full weight to (1) the contention of the Soviet Government that the support rendered by the Allies to the White armies caused the Government to regard a state of war as exist - ing between Soviet Russia and the Allies, and justified the arrest and imprisonment of British subjects; (2) the serious shortage of food, medicines, and articles of primary necessity in Russia; and (3) the difference between British and Russian standards of prison life nnd discipline, the committee has arrived at the. following conclusions;— (a) That the majority of British subjects arrested were imprisoned without trial and without reason assigned. (b) That these British Subjects so im prisoned, together with others charged with political offences, wore treated with calculated brutality, and subjected to terrible physical, and mental suffering. (c) That no attempt was made to differ, entiate between the treatment in .prison of British prisoners and of hardened and notorious criminals.

(d) That with regard to British subjects the Soviet Government systematically ignored the obligations of justice and humanity.

(e) That the Soviet Government proved themselves incapable of discharging the - responsibilities towards British eubiects detained in Russia, which tho successful revolution had placed in. their hands.

The committee consists of Ford Emmott (chairman). Sir W. Ryland Adkins, K.C.. M.P., Sir Ellis Hume-Williams, K.C.. M.P.. and Major Watts Morgan. D. 5.0.. M.P.