RUSSIA.

Taihape Daily Times, 4 October 1918, Page 5

RUSSIA.

A CALLOUS COMMANDANT. [LONDON, October 2. The Daily Chronicle’s Petrograd correspondent reports. When the commandant found the British prisoners ho ordered the Guards to drive them back, saying ‘Let them stifle; that is what is wanted.’ Subsequently the overcrowding was so serious that Britishers and Frenchmen were marched through the streets to the Peter and Paul fortress, where the commandant at first refused them admittance because the cells were full, but eventually the prisoners were immured in the bastion. The new arrivals, traversing the corridors, sow pallid faces pering through peeping holes. The Guards said they wore mostly those of ex-officers, most of whom had been in prison for over a month and had never been charged or examined. A foul stench pervaded the prison. The English and French prisoners wore broken into groups of eight and distributed in already overcrowding cells. Those cells under the old regime held one prisoner apiece, now they hold twenty. The prisoners were obliged to sleep on a ( stone floor. They were allowed to receive a few parcels periodically, but the food then was nearly rail rotten, and was discarded, though rations were supplied only twice weekly. Some Russian ex-officers were absolutely and literally starving. The English and French entered the prison on Sunday night, and received no food until they got a small allowance of soup at four o’clock on Thursday morning. It was painful to see strong men trying to conceal their hunger. ” The corespondent’s letter, accompanying his report, 'dispatched the same day, concludes: “It was heartrending to see prisoners straining their ears whenever, the clanking of chains was heard, raising hopes that food was coming, but afraid to light a solitary candle lest there should be no light when the soup came. What the future has in store no one knows or dares to speculate.” IN NORTH RUSSIA. - ALLIED SUCCESS. s LONDON, Oct 2. A British .. North Russian . official message states: In connection with the capture of Ukhtinskaya,' 160 of the. enemy were killed. Southern Karelia has been cleared of the enmy, except 200 newly-arrived reinforcements, which are surrounded south-westward of Ukhtinskaya. - ■