PRISONERS OF SOVIET,

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18855, 27 January 1933, Page 3

PRISONERS OF SOVIET,

VICTIMS OF THE OGPU. TRAFFIC IN RANSOMS. (From a Correspondent.) LONDON, December 12. The Riga correspondent ol' the London 'rimes telegraphs— Tlic Soviet authorities have granted further facilities for ransom whereby persons abroad may not only purchase the liberation of certain classes Jf their relatives and friends from Soviet prisons, but also at fixed prices obtain their release from Soviet territory for permanent residence obroad. At present Hie oftlcially-flxed ransom from the U.S.S.R. for Soviet citizens costs 500 dollars (about £IOO at par) or tho equivalent in oilier foreign currencies, besides the cost of the railway ticket; l.mt proletarians desirous of leaving Hie U.S.S.R. may obtain their release for half-price. The “fee.” for release may not he paid in j roubles, but only in foreign currency. \ The Irafllc in ransoms lias been long practised by the Ogpu (Cheka) and was at one time an important means of obtaining foreign currency. The Ogpu simply arrests persons having relatives abroad or presumably aide In obtain foreign money, and without accusing them of any offence names the amount of their ransom, keeping them imprisoned until Hie ransom ; s received. Tho Soviet apthorilies have now published a list of J 5 addresses whence particulars may lie had for purchasing the. release from the U.S.S.R. of Soviet citizens now resident in central regions, tiie Ukraine, ■White Russia, Hie Crimea, the Caucasus or Siberia.