EXILED TO SIBERIA.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13417, 14 March 1914, Page 8

EXILED TO SIBERIA.

It is from" the suffering® of political^ prisoners that, the world has derived, iteidea of thSiSiberbm prison system; the ■jirpcds Siberi&t' haying long^ Ir&d; "that tcrrihl^rtng- p| ii-feter dss£ai£ : attaches to! ftbNjtber .collocatk)^ of words since the world-lost faithcii*'. , the doctrine . of eternal damnation. I*1'* The quotation is from an article by the St. Petersburg correspondent of the "Morning Post," who deals with another side of the Siberian system—the punishment 'of ordinary criminals. To the criminal classes, he says, the words "exiled to Siberia" have never borne such awful significance. On the contrary, the criminal sent to Siberia has said "the sun shines as well in Siberia," and keeps his mind on the not-very-difficult problem of escape. Facts and figures adduced by the correspondent are astonishing. He remembers hearing a man setting out for his third "life" eentence in Siberia, for his fifth brutal murder, say to .his weeping wife: "Stop your snivelling, fool; don't I know the way back by now?"; Not long ago a "Siberian return" was sent once .more to Siberia for his thirty-fifth murder. The murderer with half a .dozen murders to his credit, each - carrying a heavy sentence, is common c.nough in Russia. Even in the pre-railway days escape from prison in Siberia was fairly easy, but' as the trans-Siberian railway approached completion nearly two-thirds of the convicts got away. The prison system was thoroughly bad. The prisoners lived in common, and during certain hours a warden who put his foot in the common room did so at thje risk of his life. There was not enough work to keep them employed, and as idleness went with slack discipline and various kinds of indulgences, demoralisation was widespread. According to official figures a certain prison which has accommodation for 114 prisoners, employs 122 officials to look after "them, including 72 of a military guard. The whole convict system in Siberia h&s been a failure, and now what remains of it is to be abolished.— "Press."