ESCAPE FROM “REDS”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17236, 16 April 1930, Page 16

ESCAPE FROM “REDS”

LED OUT TO BE SHOT ENGLISHWOMAN’S EXPERIENCE PROPERTY CONFIMjATKIt LONDON. Fob. 18. 1 Graphic stories of the ordeal of Christians in Russia, were related to a reporter- by an Englishwoman who has just, escaped nftfer- nearly 12 years of the terror. The woman, an artist, was at Odessa at The outbreak, of war. Her fiance, it Russian, was shot for ids royalist sympathies, and she was thrown into a JJolshovio gaol and twice taken by a firing squad to he shot. She escaped towards Die ends ol last year by means of smuggled papers and arrived in - London penniless. As she is afraid that friends who assisted her in Russia may suffer, her name is withheld. “I had saved several thousands of pounds,'” she said yesterday, “hut when the Bolshevist, revolution came everything} 1. possessed was confiscated, including my jewels, furs, money, mid stocks. “In April 1920, 1 had my first taste of Bolshevist prisons. With hundreds of French, Italians, and Poles, I was avrested because I refused to surrender my jewels and - other personal possessions. “Old men and women were, huddled into' filthy cells. A Greek who was in Die same' cell as I. was taken out and shot because he had sold his diamond Dug to get food for Iris family. I was kept in prison tor five months and during the, whole time I had to sleep on the stone floor. SPITTING ON ; THE GROSS “Twice t was taken out at, midnight and told that T was to lie shot, but each time. I was taken hack to the cell. This term of mental torture is Irequent, and nobody knows when he or she may 1)0 taken out anil shot on some, pretext. “When I came out of prison J was destitute and refused permission to leave Russia, as 1. was regarded as an enemy of Bolshevism. “Soon a Her this the Bolsheviks began (heir campaign against Die Christian churches. Children were iaught to spit on the Cross ami to deride religions symbols and those connected with tho churches. “During those, years,of my own knowledge, lni-ndieds oi Russian priests had their tongues torn out and their eyes burned. “The Terror was intensified last August, when Sundays were abolished. Children are not allowed to use the word ‘mother,’ and are taught that she is Dio woman who bore you.’ It is a ei'iiue to be found in possession ol a Bible, or a religious hook, and rendeis anybody liable to be thrown into prison anil shot Or done to dentil in more horrible fashion,” ■ The woman declared that every where in Russia, she found a growing hatred of the Bolshevist regime, and added:

"• “T am very fond Of the. Russian people. I do Hot think the Bolsheviks will succeed in stamping mil religion, but if-' (he Tenor continues il will end in a religious civil war.”