TRADE WITH RUSSIA.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 16152, 28 November 1924, Page 9

TRADE WITH RUSSIA.

A GERMAN'S DISASTROUB EX- 1 PERIENCEB. LONDON, October 14. In the Times of Ootober ii was published a letter from Liout.-Golonel Assheton Pownall drawing attention to the case of Herr Tomlcr, who was imprisoned last January by the Soviet for "cconomio espionage" and kept in prison for seven months. He is now in Germany, and at a recent meeting in Berlin of the Russian section of the union of Germans residing abroad lie gave an account of his experiences under the Bolshevists. Horr Tomler, who had lived in Russia in 1910, and was familiar with the language, was the first German man of business to attempt to establish trade between Soviet Russia and his own country. He represented a large number of firms, and his affairs went fairly smoothly until Lenin's death. A policy of ruthless taxation was then introduced, which rendered industry and commerce impossible, and the Soviet Government adopted an attitude of open hostility to all foreign concessionaires and manufacturers. Tomler was among the first to suffer, his house was raided by armed soldiers, and he was taken to prison, where he remained for several months, unable even to ascertain the reason for his arrest. It was only after the reiterated demands of the German mission in Moscow and the German Consulate at Leningrad that he received a reply, and was told his' offence was "economic espionage," and that he was subject to the death penalty. Tomler gave a graphic description of the horrors of the Bolshevist prisons, in which sick and healthy prisoners were crowded together in small cellsj filthy and swarming with vermin. The food supplied them was' atrocious. Tomler received permission to write to his wife, who 'was dangerously ill at the lime, but none of his letters ever reached her. He went on hunger strike as a protest against such treatment, but this had not the slightest effect .on his" gaolers.

Finally, owing to the pressure on the part of the German authorities, he was released and ordered to quit Russia at 48 hours' notice. Tomler, with his sick wife, who had to be carried on a stretcher, and his children, collected from various places, returned to Germany a ruined man, totally disillusioned as to the prospects of dealing with the Soviet Government.