FORCED LABOUR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 261, 28 June 1932, Page 7

FORCED LABOUR

"class enemies" SOVIET PRISON CAMPS ARE FAR WORSE THAN TZARISM. SYDNEY REVELATIONS. SYDNEY, Sunday. "Holidaying in Siberia" has become one of the watch-cries of Soviet propaganda abroad. In most of their journals there is at least one pieture, each issue, of a smiling girl worker spending four weeks' "holiday" in the snow. In a recent edition of a Sydney printed Soviet journal a pieture. of this kind was featured on the cover. The Soviet camera man is always careful not to inelude the forped labour camp in the background, a form of Soviet terrorism that is graphically described in this article. Siberia once a dreaded name to all Russians, is now being served up as a sort of Kosciusko . . . but it is not so cosy, according to Mr. G. Torin, a Russian in Sydney. A friend of Mr. Torin's was sentenced to ten years' forced labour as a "class enemy." He had committed no crime other than refusing to spy on his friends. He escaped in Ma'y last year. In a letter describing his experiences, he writes: — Like Cattle. "I was brought to a timber concentration camp near the White Sea, with 1000 other men, in a goodstrain. Cattle could not have been | treated worse. "The camp huts were made of rough timber, with no windows. Inj side it was cold and dark. There were three bunks on either side of the walls in each hut. The floor was the ground, which was always frozen. "After fierce, arduous training, we were sent out to work. Every day we were awakened at four, and were j given something like soup and hot I water to drink. No tea, sugar, or ■ bread in the morning! I "At five in the morning we formed in line, and before going into the forest to work we had drill. They taught us how to welcome authority, and if anyone made a mistake he was subjected to torturing penal drill for two hours. "At seven we were sent to cut timber. And only when we returned from work, which was about 10.30 p.m., were we given any supper. "The supper was part of the morn- ' ing soup, with more water added and a few pieces of fish fioating in it. Coarse bread was also served. "Some prisoners could not finish their work in time, and the food was sent to them in the forest. "The rule of the camp was: — Persons who don't finish their work must keep going, even if it takes all night Up to Midnight. "The majority of us were not strong enough physically, and very often we were compelled to work till 11 or 12 at night. Very often, when we had returned from the forest, they sent I us to the station for provisions. It was a long way from the camp. "We had no holidays, and no pay for our hard work. "I was worldng on cutting timber in the company of three other men, and our task was this. We had to clean the snow off the logs already cut and stack them in piles of ten. The logs were green and' very heavy. Their length was from 6 to 9 feet, and they were of various diameters. !If we attempted to rest we were beaten with sticks. We had to carry the logs from the forest without horses. It was impossible to finish the job before dark. Some prisoners resisted. For that they were put in a hole 2ft 6in square and left without food or water till subdued. "Many tried to escape from that place, but few were successful."