More Atrocities in Siberia.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 471, 14 May 1890, Page 6

More Atrocities in Siberia.

A £ Daily Chronicle ’ correspondent writing from Chita, in the Trans-Baikal gives some details of further atrocities committed by one of the officers in that district. The ofiender is the inspector of the prison fortress of N— , who, when lately receiving a batch of prisoners, noticed that one of the prisoners had no boots. The feet of the man were so dreadfully frozen that he had to be supported. The inspector, instead of sending the man to the hospital, ordered that he should be punished and confined in a cold cell in th 3 yard. After remaining two weeks in this cell, during the month of November, the man actually became worse, and the inspector then gave orders for him to be conveyed to the hospital, where he died in terrible agony a few days after his removal. The occurrence was reported to headquarters, and an official was sent with orders to make a full investigation. Asked for an explanation, the inspector declared that the prisoner arrived in good health at the station, and explained the frost-bitten condition of the man’s feet by stating that he deliberately held them outside the window of his cell. The correspondent adds that this same inspector has been guilty of similar barbarities, and is charged with having misappropriated Government money. On another occasion this same official sent away a batch of prisoners when the thermometer was 25 degrees Reaumur, below freezing. He had also knouted his prisoners on various occasions, and one man received 25 blows for losing a pair of boots. Several gentlemen who have resided in Siberia state that the prison inspectors and officials not only appropriate to their own uses the money provided by the Government for the prisoners rations, but also steal their clothes.