Soviet prisoners

Press, 28 August 1979, Page 16

Soviet prisoners

Sir, — In rejecting James J. Read’s tendentious appellation, “apologist for the Soviet system,” I have no intention of falling into his unsubtly baited and obvious trap by trying to answer his question about four alleged Soviet “prisoners of conscience,” which would tacitly acknowledge the genuineness of his “list smuggled out of the Soviet Union.” In his appeal to people whom he wishes to write to Jonas Abukauskas, Petrus Abramavicius, Jonas Gricius and Petra Kilmauskas and his 496 other “prisoners of conscience,” James J. Read does not say how these letters will reach the prisoners in their cells. If the Soviet authorities are as inhumanly cruel to these people as he claims, it is incredible that letters from foreigners should be able to reach their destination. If such letters are allowed to reach the prisoners and they are allowed to reply, I suggest that there is something decidedly suspicious about James J. Read’s catalogue of heart-wringing wrongs. — Yours, etc., M. CREEL. August 25, 1979.