POLISH PRIESTS IN SIBERIA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 150, 17 March 1876, Page 14

POLISH PRIESTS IN SIBERIA.

++ The following letter appears in the ' Gennania : ' — " It is very difficult to . obtain reliable information concerning the condition of the unfortunate Polish priests who are scattered in banishment all over Siberia, and the inhuman treatment <o which they are exposed. I am, however, able to give you some details on the subject which have been communicated to me by one of the victims, and I hope to be able to complete them on a future occasion. The number of the banished Polish priests amounted not long since to 400. Of these fully one hundred have succumbed to the rigours of their martyrdom. The lot of the exiles lies completely in the hands of the governor-general and his subordinates, and, speaking in general, they even exceed the prescribed regulations iv their dealings with those unfortunate men. In some places they receive the sum of six roubles (18s.), in others one and a half roubles (4s. 6d.), wherewith to provide for themselves the necessaries of life. Most of them are without any means of subsistence at all. Petitions to the Q-overnment are forbidden under severe penalties, and if, in spite of the prohibition, memorials find their way to the governor-general, their only result is to insure additional rigorous treatment for the memorialists. The answer is :—: — ' You ought to know that you are rebels, who have no longer any rights at all ; work for the peasants, and so earn for yourselves the necessary means of supporting yourselves.'" The following intelligence has reached me concerning the treatment of the priest X , a native of Galicia (Austrian Poland), who was sent away to Tunka, in eastern Siberia : — After having endured a shameful imprisonment for five loDg years he was at length claimed by the Austrian Government, and in virtue of a mauifesto of the Czar he received an authorisation to return home. Notwithstanding this authoiisation the Governor Era, of Irkuck, opposed his release. The priest caught typhus fever, and was terribly debilitated ; but he was still detained until tha winter had regularly set in, and then he was sent, during the most severe frost, to Krasnoyarsk, together with fourteen others, most of them robbers and murderers. The released man arrived at his destination after a march of 83 days, almost wearied to death. The governor of Krasnoyarsk authorised him to continue his journey without hiudrance ; b^t the poor exhausted priest required a few days' rest before starting afresh. For this purpose be proceeded to Tomsk, where he again fell into a serious illness. For his recovery from this he had to thank the skill of a Polish physician and the attentive nursing gi*en him by some fellowcountrymen who were settled iv this town. He is now fortunately re-established at home in Galicia, and he can at any time confirm the shameful treatment which the poor banished priests have to endure. The succours sent to those unfortunate men reach, indeed, the place of their destination, but the money, &c, remain in the hands of the forwarding officials. The exiles are scattered throughout the villages of Siberia, and they are, especially in winter, given over to the direst misery. The exercise of all priestly functions is forbidden them ; yet they cannot refrain from saying Mass in secret, under cover of the darkness of the night, a proceeding which gives them the greatest comfort. Calm and resigned they await death, unless some saving hand is stretched out to them ; they bless those that have sent help to them, and they desire that their warmest thanks may be given to them. — ' Tablet.'