RUSSIAN CONVICT ATROCITIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 24, 13 September 1911, Page 3

RUSSIAN CONVICT ATROCITIES.

M. Gutchkoff, the former president of the,Duma, i accompanied by a special corresponds t-pf the ‘ ‘Novoo' Vtcntya’’ has been visiting- Asiatic Russia, and in particular has investigated the conditions 'governing the employment of convicts''tfA 'the construction of the Amur rhilwlly; The “Nnvie Vremya’s” correspondent has from 1 tithe to time telegraplickl to bis paport the result of the hlqpbies, and in general has given a vert' favourable Account of the efficient'n'ml'hunmno miuvnhf in which convict labour is utilised.' In one account,'however,'he sends a message from China describing and deploring the wretched fate of the convicts working in the Rasdolny district, westward of the station of Malotch. r l hey are under the control of'the former administration of the Orel central prison, officials without any knowledge of the local conditions, whose only aim seems to he to continue the most rigorous form of prison treatment. The correspondent charges them with senseless cruelty towards the convicts, who are beaten and flogged without any’ valid cause. On one occasion the superintendent, Leonovitch, fired with his revolver point-blank at a man who answered him impertinently, killing him on the spot. The convicts are forced to work, however ill they may he. Many of them arc suffering from scurvy in its worst form, and the prison doctor threatens the scurvy 7 patients with cellular confinement if they asked to he relieved from work. The food given the convicts is indescribably bad. the meat rotten, and the cereals musty. The colls, where several prisoners were ertnfinod after being cruelly beaten, could, says M. Gutchkoff, only’ he called stinking nests of vermin. A party of sick convicts on the Chasovinsky section were eight days without any worm food,- .the official in charge leaving them to their fate, and not giving the escort any money for the purchase of provisions.! One doctor reported having found a convict literally dying of hunger and: exhaustion. The correspondent adds that the regime practised recalls Dostoieff sky’s “House of Death,” and lias led to many attempts at escape. Only last month twenty-two men made off in a body, and during the last six months, out* of a total of 2000, 130 sought flight. ■ Testimony is produced—even from the military guards—that the great majority of the convicts arc obedient, good tempered, and quite willing to work. M. Gutchkoff has telegraphed a long report on the above abuses to the Minister of Justice.— Reuter.