HORRORS OF THE SOVIET.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 July 1920, Page 10

HORRORS OF THE SOVIET.

LIFE IN PETROGRAD TO-DAY. "LIVING HELL UPON EARTH." REVELATIONS OF REFUGEES, BOLSHEVIKS LIKE CANNIBALS. Revolting stories of life under the Bolsheviks were given by British refugees from Russia, wlio arrived at Southampton recently on the transport Dongola. The refugees were 300 in number, and among them were four ambulance eases, which were taken straight to hospital. The party included professional and business men and women." Most of them are penniless. As the Dongola drew up to the quay at Southampton a band on shore played '•Home, Sweet Home!" and many of the refugees broke down. With the exception of the ambulanco cases:, all the men and women were brought up to London later in the day. Many of them • are very weak, but looked forwifrd with renewed hope now that they are home again. There was a number of little children among the party, some of whom saw their oiyn country for the first time. Many of the men and women had been thrown into prisons for no reason, and there huddled together in small and dirty cells. They were kept there for weeks without trial, and when released and demanded an explanation they were threatened with violence. People had been living on the flesh of cats, dogs and horses, and were in fact glad to get anything they could possibly eat. * WORSE THAN SLAVES. One of them, Miss Abbott, a middle aged lady, said that , she had been teaching in the Imperial Institute at Petrograd for twenty-five years. 'lt is the most wretched city imaginable," she said. "It is more like a village. A small piece of soap costs 100 roubles (nominally about £10), an cunce of butter costs 2000 roubles, and other articles of food are proportionately high in price. "People are worse than slaves under the Soviet regime. Money has no value whatever; it is not worth the paper it is printed on. "What is the result? People go looting, and the more they do so the more it is approved by the Bolsheviks. They are nothing but State criminals who find robbing, assaulting, and outraging the middle classes a lucrative practice. "But it is only because the Soviet Government rules the population with a rod of iron that Bolshevism exists Most business houses are closed, people have become lazy, and women are treated like pieces of dirt, and in short Petrograd is. nothing but a living hell. A year ago I had an opportunity of leaving Petrograd, but refused, thinking that the ideals of Bolshevism were sound. But they are wicked. I was to receive a pension from the Institute, but the Bolsheviks destroyed it. They are as much afraid of people with education who are able to think for themselves as they are-'of England. "I had evidence that the Bolsheviks were sent by a special train from Germany in order to stop the war and get Russia to make'a separate peace. They promised the people land and money, and picture to them a,sort of second millennium, and that is how they won the peasantry. "The other day there was a meeting where 'free' speech was supposed to be allowed. These meetings are really held to impress people with the 'free' regime under which they are living. "A working man got on his feet and said, 'Before the proletariat ruled 1 earned 25 roubles a week, and my wife and children were happy. Now I get 300 roubles and am starving.'" SHOT AT DAWN! "Not a word wag said, but during the early hours of the morning the man was fetched out of bed, taken to a quiet place and shot. His wife and children were removed to another part of the country. "That will give you an idea of 'free' Russia. No end of persons have been arrested and thrown into prison. Every day decrees are published so as to put the rope tighter and tighter round your neck. One dare not talk or go out. All you can do in Russia is to live in , filthy hovels and starve. "During the winter, which- was very had in Russia, I was without a fire with two degrees? of frost in the room. For 15 months I lived daily on a small quantity of soup, black bread, and potatoes, for which an exorbitant charge' was made. I was so weak that I had to be tarried on the train. "For the least thing a person is shot af sight, and nobody takes notice of such minor things as these. Women are insulted by soldiers. In fact, to put it briefly, there is a reign of terror in Russia unprecedented in history. "Lots of us have come to the conclusion, from observation and the character of hig actions, that Lenin is a maniac, and that people are afraid of him. Even Germany fears him at the moment. God help any country that has to tolerate such a Government." A MIDNIGHT ARREST. A gentleman who has been on lousiness in Petrograd said he was taken to prison one night without explanation. "Two soldiers came to my house, caught hold of me and threatened to shoot me if I said a word. They took me to prison, where I .remained for some weeks. I wanted to know why 1 was arrested, but could get no satisfaction. I knew nothing of what had become of my wife and family. I was badly fed, lived in squalor, and was in the same prison as a man suffering from cholera; we protested, but the guards laughed at us. We were mostly Englishmen. Eventually I was released, and informed that if I did not clear out of the country at once I would be butchered. "It is no exaggeration to say that the Bolsheviks are more like cannibals than civilised. Several Englishmen went mad through the life they were enduring, and two of them were shot before my eyes. I care nothing for polities, but God help England if such conditions were established here. Bolshevism is only an--1 other name for brigandage, and that is why the extremists favor it." Miss Weston, another English lady of the party, stated that old men and women beg to be killed by each other because of the dirt and misery in which they are forced to live. Don't hesitate to use Nazol very freely, especially by constant inhalation. It protects the mouth, nose and throat »£ai&st infectious influenza gams.