PRISONER IN RUSSIA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 158, 16 April 1928, Page 7

PRISONER IN RUSSIA.

GERMAN ILL-TREATED. FEARS FOR COMPATRIOTS. LONDON, March 25. The Berlin correspondent of "The Times" says the circumstances surrounding the arrest of Goldstein —one of the six German industrial specialists who were seized at Donetz on charges ranging up to sabotage of Russian enterprises—merely because an intercepted letter was wrongly translated, have caused misgivings regarding the fate of his compatriots, who have not yet been released. Goldstein, who is a trusted expert of the General Electric Company, on reaching Berlin, told how he heard rifle butts battering at his door at 2 a.m. When he opened the door, armed members of the Russian secret' police took him into custody. Some German friends handed him blankets, and he was driven to Stalin, where he was incarcerated in a cell occupied by vermininfested Russians. He became ill, but nevertheless was again started on his journey, to where he knew not, his armed escort sitting with fingez - s on the triggers. He eventually reached Rostoff, after 20 hours in the train. There was again searched and deprived of his tie and bolt to preclude any possibility of suicide, and pushed into a verminous cell containing seven Russians. He was able to exercise five minutes a day only. A fellow-prisoner went mad, and another went into fits.