BRITON’S 10 DAYS IN DUNGEON.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16870, 27 October 1925, Page 9

BRITON’S 10 DAYS IN DUNGEON.

BOLSHEVIK GUARDS’ JEERS. THE MOSCOW METHOD. . LONDON, Sept. 10.—A remarkable narrative of imprisonment, in a Bolshevik dungeon and a trial before the

"Proletarian Court of Justice” at Vla'divostoek is told by Mr Sydney 0. Stiler, chief officer of I lie Glen Line steamer Carnarvonshire, who has just returned home.

Mr Suter was liberated from prison, in which he suffered the vilest possible torture, through the efforts of the Navigators and General Insurance Co.

At the time of his illegal arrest and imprisonment the riots at .Shanghai yvero in progress, and, according to Mr Suter,< lie was made the medium of propaganda' by the Bolsheviks to show that they were protecting Chinese against "British tyranny.” As the Carnarvonshire approached Vladivostock a Chinese sailor was discovered pilfering the quarters of- the Chinese crow. Ibis man was ordered by Mr Suler to be handcuffed to a rail, mainly to save him from the violence of the other Chinese, while a. Bolshevik policeman was found to take the man in charge.

When the policeman appeared he apparently took tile word of the Chinese thief before that of Mr- Enter, with the result that the latter was charged “under Paragraph 160 of the PcijalCode—forcible deprivation of liberty by a painful method which endangered the life or health' of tho person detained. '4 FILTHY AND NO WINDOWS. Mr Suter said tu a Daily Mail reporter : - 1 was searched, put into a carriage with an armed soldier, and driven to the secret- police pnsop, . After waiting two or more hours 1 was deprived of my money, watch, tie, belt, and other articles, and was sent under escort toa cell, which was about 10ft. square by 9ft. high.

It had no windows, but a grating at the upper end of a shaft in the roof. The straw bed was in an indescribably filthy state. There was a table and a stool and a wooden spoon. There were a Rpgsiati and w. Chinese in tho cell, which seemed to amuse the Bolshevik guard, who frequently .reminded me of the fact that (he three of us were bunched. together in a Russian prison.

Un June 16 1 went to the courthouse for what was nothing more than a farcical trial, in which the Public Prosecutor refused to prosecute. The trial lasted from 4 p.m. till midnight. The magistrate sat among the erovYd in Court, and I was tried by three peasants in corduroys with handkerchiefs rojuHl. their necks.

I was let off on payment of a fine of JJ46, and told 1 was free as long as .1 did not attempt to leave the city, Eventually T managed to get on board the steamer Glenbeg, which brought me home.