THE RUSSIAN TERROR.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10243, 4 September 1909, Page 6

THE RUSSIAN TERROR.

WHY tJNPOPtTLAR '.' OTi'-ENGLAifD:: •:--?':■;, %

l£y LABOR! PARTY'S PROTEST. -; -' ■ : &y. . -f- " '!: . '*• 'libndon,,July 23. '"• Thirteen ; months ago the V- English" "li'alßdr'parTby protested, against .th*e;'visit r %£■ .fhat ~visit'is';!aort ;tne-Czar,;'and 'again''tne.: liaboi:.-party• has .feltit'!tO'.be -its; duty in.the\name of' theivpeopje^of;v ; Ehglaild,: ■against .the vhdnor'xo;, beT'paid "to;! theRussian Monarch., ;., i<rf ! : ;..;»: -,. : '^i ;. ;: iihe'tabdf lthe , ,i.Gaar.:: - Unimpeachable" recprdg'rshdw., [that the amount 'of -suffertng- and"cruel repression/how prevalent;iHj-Russia surivp"as,se?''eVerything " that is-"known in modern.histoi;y. % facts in Prince Eropptk'in's book, "The"; Terlpr ,' In Russiaj:-' remain"un-' ch'allenged.v From. official, documents it appears that, on February, 1' this year there were 181,i3,7.vPersons i9.-.#^?? ia . n prison's, "not including ''30,000 r in trahsportation, and the-number. detained in polled -lock-ups from sQ,ooo'to -100;000.., Steadily the number of prisoners hasgrown. In 1905i,.the' average..' daily numoer was 85,000; in 1906,. 111,000:; in ;and. in' 1908,, 170,000;" As the capacity of the prisons :under ordinary.: conditions! is for' ; 'lo7,yOOO, therehas been overcrowding, withvthe result, says T?rince' Kfopotkin> that scurvy and o.ther diseases: aar t spreading. through all'-parts' Suicides ' in oilson, the result of treatment tpiwhich' prisoners were subjected, were 30 in 1905, 70 in 1907, and.6o in the first ten months of 1908. Charges of system- . atic ill-treatment, tdrture," and . wilful neglect were fully substantiated. In 1905 there were 72 death sentences by court martial and executions.; in 11906 there, were '450 death sentences' |and 144 executions: .in 1907, 1056, and 480 executions; andlii 1908 the hig'hI est number .iwaS;. reached, 1741. death ; sentences and'B23 !i Under ; sentences "by' field 'Courts" martial' in 1 1906-7 there were 683 executions. The ■ figures ■•" do not include 84 soldiers hanged or-shot in 1907, and A .so, far as i can be- gathered from the there l jwere 235 executions in the first quarter !of the present year. It would appear :that strong humanitarian" "appeals from \ Count Tplstoy and .others'have, been un- ! heeded, and influence exercised by the !Reval visit, has had no result. The 'executions have often been carried ouo ; without trials, in the, real- ; sense of the "word, and,. according to a "report to thd iDuma, there were 74,000 people exiled ,for purely political offences, transported '.to .a,,semj-arctic., climate, where %n'en'and work, with an allowance of 3s a month ,for food, subjected to arbitrary police .regulations, and often medical. ;assistarice.' These exiles are treated'• s' icriminals; ' 237 ex-membe?s :t; . of.. .r ; thd Diima have been condemned'to various ; terms of and 40§ ed}tor|. 'since 1905; The position that "the''ija',bor party take up is that the Czar-and ; his Goverumeht dannot be disassociated from responsibility in this appalling chapter of horrorst; ~ [. / , ■;' Many pages could "be covered with the description of the ill-treatment and ;the tortures in different prisons of Russia. : : A few cases taken at random from Prince Kropotkin's book, "The Terror, in Russia,", will serve to illustrate the spirit of hatred and cruel revehge which seems-to dominate the bureaucracy and its agents:— In. the Kostroma prison, the prisoner Phillipoi, for having thrown ' some crumbs out of the window, was ! put irt a strait waistcoat and beaten to death!, A certain prisoner, named Vogt, though he was ill with typhoid, was taken from his bed arid dragged to execution ■ while" in a delirious state. The Duma deputy who published the story of this outrage is himself a prisoner now, dying of consumption and underfseding. He has- been placed in a tiny room .with three ,' other sick men, one of-whom, is ill with typhoid, one with consumption, • . and the third in the last stages of consumption. ' ' ■':.

•'ln the Bontyrki prison, in Moscow,' : the ..cases .'of beating and black-hole . puiiishment are en,dless. •-, ; i : . '.A prisoner was slb^v'in 'taking off his cap, v assistant. The • assistant snatched" off' the cap and gave the prisoner a furious blow ,'in the ribs. The warders constantly beat the prisoners. .-■'.'. .-'.''. One prisoner had his temple, smashed, by a, blow 'given'.'with: a pair 'of .handcuffs. ........

A sailor was so' ; beateii. in July, 1908, that he committed suicide. Real ..tortures take place in the black hole and in the "secret" cells.

"Enter, with a lamp into this cell," writes .! a', prisoner, "and the black patches of coagulated blood will tell you what happens in y the .black hole." Recently a. prispiier,;..bfficiariy reported perfectly healthy, previous to this, died three days after ill-treat-ment .'in!, ithe black hole.

A prisoner,.. acknowledged* insane, was terribly-b'eateri;'a^d,'flogged.; One -prisoner ihHhe' hospital struck a warder- during 'a fit. "He was strapped with leather thongs to his cot for s'eyeii . !days. These straps were neither removed nor loosened for one single moment jpr. any need during the "seven days;. and seven nights. His; right. arm., lias now become ;, :; : / '-■ )' .- : : Another prisoner was bound to his cot.in : a-similar way in his cell for five days, .during'which time he was unconscious. .

.The sick and healthy ;are.'herded together. V .' --•<•■-" 'wEvery day there are new cases, of • prisoners becoming, "deranged., , The,officials, 'chpse'to .consider most ' of. these,; erases as : , "shainmihg,'' and many such prisoners" commit suicide. Those prisoners' who are .violent, are kept strapped in their cots, for whole .; days, where they lie in a state of !uri- ; told filth. , ."."_ ■ i Sixty-five per cent, of^the. -prisoners are suffering from scuryy,.,and their fitters cut into their swollen legs. The death-rate is enprmou'si' The corf-" siimptives ' dio in fetters in '.the crowded cells, other prisoners ■;" looking on; '„ Sir Edward Grey denounces as "manifestations of futile folly/'.2tlie';pr£tesiis ■made in this country agaiiist thei visit oi, she Czar, ; and most of, the London papers follow the Foreign Secretary's lead. The Times goes so far.as to declare, that on this question the Labor, party and the Irish "NatiMalists' lutely misrepresented the wishes and the jfeelihgs of all classes of people." .If that is 'so, one .would ljkg t6'\know why the Gzar is•'" :tb" "be received, at .,ngt.^brought .-, to. London, like nion*a rchs, to receive a popular ''welcbme in the streets^pf.the.jßetrp^olis^?, >;• >r "■■:"