THE RUSSION EXILE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVI, Issue LVI, 11 June 1909, Page 5

THE RUSSION EXILE.

DR BORANOFF.

Lately arrived in JNew' Zealand is Dr Boranotf, not only a prominent personage because he is a Russian exile 4 who escaped three times from imprison? ment in Siberia, where he was incarcerated and suffered all the tortures heaped upon every political prisoner because of his opinions, . but also because Dr Boranotf has just completed a highly successful tour of Englaxd, delivering brilliant discourses of his.appalling experiences in Siberia, and has arrived direct from London in the Tainui to tour New Zealand. Dr Boranoff will appear for one night only in the Opera House, Hatfera, on Tuesday, June 15. It may be interesting to know that there is no capital punishment in Russia excepting for political prisoners, who are also .brutally tortured. Dr. Boranoff, who is a graduate in science and medicine at the universities of St. Petersburg, Dorpat, and Berlin, speaks English with a beautiful grace and fluency, and his dramatic and thrilling discourses are of absorbing interest. Dr. Boranoff said he was first arrested and sent to Siberia for being concerned in the production of a newspaper. He had then jv^st started to practice his calling. He was lodged in gaol. There was no trial; only a maximum of salt food, a minimum of water, and continual questioning about » his associates. Then came the lash, and Dr. Boranoff showed the red cicatrices running down the spine. He rolled back his shirt cuff and revealed an arm into which deep furrows had eaten. "The chains," he said with simple directness. By night and day he was chained by his arms and legs to a barrow. Finding him unresponsive to betray his friends he goes on to explain, they tried another plan, the cruellest of allHe was ruthlessly chained to the wall and a woman was brought in and stripped to the waist. When she turned her face he knew her. She was a friend of his, and they had apprehended her — poor gentle girl — on suspicion. They fastened her to the wall, and om that bare back the Cossack knout was set to work. She implored him not to speak nor betray his friends, and her courage only kept him from doing so. She enjoined him not to titter a word. ' 'It was brutal — terrible beyond words," says Dr. Boranoff. To-morrow morning the bos plan will open at Cole Donnelly's. There is » special concession f«r ladies. Colleges and schools may also arrange for concessions.