LIFE IN SIBERIAN PRISON

Taranaki Daily News, 9 July 1929, Page 16

LIFE IN SIBERIAN PRISON

CARROT TEA AND' BLACK BREAD. ENGLISHMAN’S EXPERIENCES. Two scanty meals a day for twelve months, consisting of black rye bread, millet porridge, cabbage soup and tea made from dried carrots. Such was the diet to which Major G. A. Harrison, a British mining expert, was restricted during his incar-r ceration in a Bolshevist prison camp in Siberia after the war. Recently in Sydney on his way to New Guinea, he told a reporter of the scarcity of food in those troubled times. For some .years before the war Major Harrison was engaged in examination of metalliferous deposits and management of mines in Russia and Siberia. He served in the British Army and after the Armistice returned to his old post, entering Siberia through Vladivostock. His headquarters were on the Steppe, 400 miles south of Omsk, on the transSiberian railway, and he had been there for some time When news came through of the advance of the Bolshevist troops. Securing sleighs and horses, he and a few companions made their way cast, intending to escape that way, but soon found their progress checked. Incited by the news of the Soviet advance, the hooligan element of the towns had formed into bands, and were molesting travellers and refugees, who were shown no mercy. The party soon found that avenue of escape closed, and tried a different direction, but were blocked by similar uprisings. Then their horses gave way. Fresh ones were unprocurable, and refuge had to be sought among the Khirgiz, nomadic tribes inhabiting the Southern Steppe. For close on a month they lived among these people, sleeping in their aouls (tents) and eating their coarse food—a flour and water paste fried in mutton fat. Occasionally a sheep would be killed. Eventually the advancing troops reached the village, and on Christmas Day he was discovered and taken prisoner. He was sent to one of his company’s mines south of Omsk, and although not subjected to close confinement, escape was impossible, as the nearest settlement was more than 100 miles distant.

Of the conditions at the camp Major Harrison says little, but states that he was subjected to no cruelties, although the food was terrible. There were two meals a day. The first, at 10 a.m., consisted of a small cube of black rye bread and a mug of tea made from dried carrots, and was followed at 5.30 by a ladle of porridge of millet and. some cabbage soup. Meals could be secured only by tickets, and attempting to procure it by other means was a capital offence. The tickets had to be obtained daily, and consequently most of the time was spent standing in queues. Eventually he was included in a draft of prisoners to be interchanged, and with 50 others was herded into a cattle truck, where there was standing room only. The trip to Moscow, usually accomplished in 24 days, took nine-.