SLAVES IN RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20840, 6 April 1931, Page 14

SLAVES IN RUSSIA.

HARD LABOUR FOREST WORK. ' CAMP AND; HOSPITAL HORRORS. STATEMENTS BY EX-PRISONERS. / 1 Commander Carlyon Bellairs, M.P., recently . addressed the following letter to the British /Prime Minister:— "Dear Prime Minister, —I was expressly invited by the Government to supply the evidence of prison labour in the Soviet Russian timber trade. Subsequently, when I was supplied with evidence, both the President of /the Board of Trade and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs said that no consideration would be given to the matjer since no public body of any sort had protested. " There question about the weight of protest to-day, but Lord Ponsonby, on took the ground that: — (1) The evidence was insufficient. (2) Evidence a3 submitted Bhowed only 60,000 prisoners labouring in the timber forests of Russia. " With regard to (1), I enclose further ievidence in the form of copies of affidavits of escaped prisoners. With regard to (2), at has this been stated, though evidence 'as to two camps—jVishesky and Kotlas —came to about 60,000 prisoners. The high O.G.P.U. official whose affidavit I have in my hands as I write—l enclose copy—swears to 662,200 prisoners in the timber camps on May 1, 1930, according to the statistical registration list. He fled from his post in Russia on June 21, so his information is first hand.—Yours sincerely, Carlyon Bellairs." Barracks of Ice. The following are extracts from the affidavits enclosed in Commander Bellairs' letter:— Sworn statement by Nicholas Ivanovitch Malyshov, peasant of the province of Kostroma and former student of the military academy of medicine at Petrograd. Was arrested for anti-Soviet propaganda in the Red Army while serving there in the quality of medical assistant and sentenced to three years' penal labour. Spent the period from July 8, 1929, to July 1, 1930, at the hard labour forest work in the O.G.P.U. camps at Solovki. He states:—

" The political exiles—who are the only ones present, as ordinary criminals are not sent there—live in barracks hastily put up by the prisoners themselves. The floors are simply made of earth, and as tho soil remains more or less frozen all tho year round, the floor* is just one block of ice. Neither are there any roofs; the ceilings which take their place invariably leak, letting'the water from the melting Bnow drip through them; the barracks are fearfully damp and cold. There is no heating; this is supplied by the breath of the prisoners. Couches of Bare Flanks. 'S'The prisoners sleep on couches of bare planks; or under them. Only those are in possession of mattresses and pillows who brought these objects with them into exile. The O.G.P.U. does not give any to its prisoners.. The sleeping planks are disposed in two rows, the one above the other on both sides of .the barracks. A narrow passage is left between the planks. , " The overcrowding is something ter- ' rible. The of barracks has become quite insufficient. The quantity of lice is terrifying. The epidemic of typhus fever /kills tens of thousands human beings. "I also fell ill with typhus in December, 1929, <and was placed in the Kandalaksha Hospital. This hospital was designed for 75 patients. It accommodated at the time more than 200. The patients lay there on bare planks, as closely pressed the one to the other as in the ordinary barracks. "The whole hospital had but one ward with couchesj for about 13 paiients, but they would give then} only to their own people—sick tchekists and those of the prisoners who worked in tho administration. The daily mortality in that hospital was no less than 15 per cent. Fifteen Hours a Day. "Cases of freezing are a daily occurrence at they forest works. This is duo mainly to tho fact that hardly any of tho prisoners possess warm clothing. "In winter time the work goes on uninterruptedly from five in the morning till eight in the evening. In winter every prisoner has t<? saw down 35 trees, at soil level, and to rid them of then branches, after sawing off the top of the tree. Those who have not completed their task bj? eight in the evening get a thorough thrashing from the tchekists. "The Bolsheviks do not abstain from applying hard labour even to children; lads of 15, 16 and 17 years were in the camp at the same time as I. They get the same tgisks to do as the grown-up men. "The prisoners get their meals twice a day. The food is repulsive; tho bread contains all kinds of surrogates. Those who have not completed their task receive a smaller ration, merely 300 grammes of black bread and water," March of 45 Miles to Damp. The following are extracts from an affidavit made in Finland in December by an escaped prisoner who worked on timber:—

"On Octotyer 11, 1929, I was again arrested and sent to Spalernaja prison. On this occasion there was no trial, but I was handed a slip of paper stating that I had hern sentenced to five years at convict labour and five years exile thereafter. At this time about 500 others wero also sentenced, and we Were all taken to the north to Avork in the woods. "The convoy with which I was sent included 137 men and women, . and was taken by iail to Parantola (ParandowsItoya) on the Murmansk railway, and from there we walked about 75 kilometres (about 45 miles) north and slightly west to a earn] j in the forest. "Here there were two barracks with about 1000 prisoners, all of whom wero engaged in cutting, trimming, hauling, barking and piling logs. "We received as daily food 800 grammes of bread, 200 grammes of groats, and 35 grammes of fish. If the daily allotment was performed we were permitted to purchase additional bread, groats and fish. For this work wo were also paid a small Burn in prison money."