THE PRISON OF IRKUTSK.

New Zealand Mail, 21 February 1901, Page 63

THE PRISON OF IRKUTSK.

(From “Russia of To-day’’ in “Scribner’s y Magazine/'’) The single '-cells were ..large;, airy, and fairly light, while the whole prison was surprisingly clean. Bub above all I was struck with the relations between the prisoners and their governor. IN ever in my life have I seen such a terrible lot of- human beings gathered together —one Out of every five looked a mere beast, and when the door of onte of the large rooms was thrown open, and I was invited to step in. among two hundred of them, I confess ht first ! hesitated. There were only four of us—the governor, the head-warder, the doorkeeper of the room and myself, with nobody else evein within hail, while iii one case there were hut two doors between them and the street, and ah. old man keeping watch.. In an English prison those men would have been outside in a couple of minutes... Rut M. Sipiagine, the inspector,:-: as he is .called, treated them etxactly like a troop ..of children. Whenever• he- entered a reborn or cell he lifted his cap and said “ZdrastiF (“Good-day!”), and the same reply was always • -cordially given. I was prepared for, a. “show” visit, but it. was perfectly clehr that in this prison, at any rate, there is nothing like terrorism. The prisoners came up to the inspector, asked him questions about themselves or their sentences without the least trace of fear, or embarrassment, and even took him literally' by the button-hole and turned him aside from us when they wished to make some private remark to him. One man going bo Sakhalin, produced a paper showing khlrat he had " a small sum of money to this credit in a prison- at~Moscow-,-and the ’particulars were noted down.' and orders given that this whs/to, be after him. ‘ Another wished the " doctor* to examine •him again before he seated for Sakhalin; | the inspector spoke, a word .to his orderly, and later in thb day T saw this man’ isatting at the hqspjsaldoqr awaiting his (turn. There was no political prisoned’ fthere at‘-the time; at least, I was assured that this was the case;, and. later T saw the.official report for the day,, in which no’such prisoner figured. I- saw )a number ‘of; “political/’ elsewhere ; af jyarious times* bub they were all. earning a good living “as" clerks and book-keepers. Of course I did not go as far as the ter-. yible little town of Kclyinsk, a thousand

versts north of Irkutsk, where the worst political offenders are exiled to a living death. But from all I saw I was not surprised to learn that at the beginning of each winter an influx of minor offenders takes place into prison, where they get warm quarters, plenty of wholesome food, and no work. And I saw clearly that the Russian authorities have i o deal with a stratum of population far below any that exists with us—a brutish. hopeless, irreclaimable mass of human animals.

It is evident, however, to ~ anybody who studies the state of Siberia, thattins wonderful country can never attain to its due development until the wh de system of convict transportation is done away with. Not a week passes without a murder in every Siberian town. Two emigrants had been killed in the Siberian train shortly before my visit. Nobody dares go out at night. People even in Irkutsk often fire a revolver shot out of the window before going to bed to warn off a possible attack. The head of one force of free labourers' upon railway works was in Siberia for an outrage upon a child; the boss of another was a murderer. The porter at my hotel in Irkutsk was a murdclrer from the Caucasus. Theoretically, when bad characters are deported they are forbidden to leave the district to which they are assigned : practically, they leave, as soon as it suits them, and their first object is to kill some peasant for his clothes and passport. Indeed, if they did not move away they would starve, for inmany cases the authorities 'simply turn them out and leave them to their fate.. The political exiles have made Siberia what it is, for they have been amongst the most educated and energetic classes iii Russia-; but the criminal exiles are a fatal bar to further pragress. Siberia Will eagerly welcome the good news 'thatyfcnji. commission appointed by ’the Czar t'o'bbnsider the whole question of criminal^transportation has just reported against- the Siberian system, and recommended the construction of great convict prisons' in Russia. The cost of these to the State will be- enormously greater than that of criminal Siberia, and assuredly the lot of the convict will henceforth be, harder, but the decision was. inevitable''if one of the richest parts of the Czar’s dominions is to attain its proper prosperity.