RUNAWAYS FROM RUSSIA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 293, 5 December 1908, Page 3

RUNAWAYS FROM RUSSIA

Every now and ti»ain the Russian quarter in the Hunt End »f London is stirred up by the arrival of prisonbreakers from Russia. They are not criminals, but men and women who have been sentenced for political reasons.

The accounts of their escapes veiy often hardly seem credible. For instance, Loudon, is now' harbouring one of a party of ten who brought off a coup in Warsaw. The Paviak prison there is one of the strongest in the world. Us head received a .telephone message from the military governor that ten of the prisoners were to be transferred to the Citadel, for which purpose lie was sending an ollicer with a siillicient guard. "in due course an ollicer, accompanied by six policemen, produced an officiallooking document authorising the transfer of the ten men. who were fully described. The prisoners were driven away in a prison-van, and never seen again. The van and uniforms were found later on the outskirts of the city.

The Akaatui prison, Eastern Siberia, provided London with another runaway. This 'man 'managed to secrete himself l a pickled cabbage barrel, and was stored away in a cellar under the governor's hous'c. He tunnelled through the foundations, was met liv friends with a sleigh, and safelv reached a refuge, where he planned tlie trip to the metropolis.