The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-05-30
MR.. GEORGE KEENAN,
Replies to Vice-Consul- General
DunstOn's Criticisms
ON HIS SIBERIAN EXILE ARTICLES.
He Saws DunstOn Don't Know What He ia
Talking AbOut-He Cites Russian
Official Documents.

Especial toTHE HERALD-Examiner Dispatch1
BUFFALO, May 29.-Mr. George KEENAN,. who
is now in this city was asked by reporter of the
Commercial to-day whether he had anything to
say with regard to the recently published inter-
view IN which Mr.. Dunston, vice consuIgenera
OIL the United States, in return for having ac-
cused him OF making exaggerated and sensa-
tlonal statements concerning Siberian prisons
and the exile system. At have this to saw that
Mr.. Dunston does not seem to have the most
rudtmentary knowledge of the subject upon
which he talks. AS for the Siberian prisons in
particular, do not know what Mr.. Dunston can
possibly know about them, since he has neither
inspected them himself nor read the reports Of
officers who have inspected them. He thinks
that 1 misrepresented and exaggerated their
views. 1t is unnecessary TO discuss that oues-
ton since their condition has been fully and
frankly described by the governor general Of
eastern Siberia in three official reports to the
Car, copies of which are in my possession. In
first of these reported Governor General Aut-
chin says: During my journey to Irkutsk, in
spected great number of prison institutions
and regret to say that with the exception of
the prison castles, in Krasnsyor1 and Cikoutsk
they are all, that is the circuit prisons forward
ing prisons and etapes, in q lamentable condi-
ton. The etapes are particularly bad
In later report the governor general de-
clares that not Notwithstanding the lone prac-
tlced exile OF criminals, the exile system is in
the most unsatisfactory condition. The etapes
forwarding prisons and other prisons now. with
the very feweSt exceptions, are tumDle-down
buildings In bad sanitary condition, cold in
winter. saturated with maSma, and to crown
all, ahord1ng very little security against es-
capes. The prisons IL NiZshni, Udnish China
Nerch1nsh, Blagovescuchinsk and Nikblaevsh
aStound one by their bad condition The rea-
sons for such melancholy condition OF the
prisons are many. They are bad because all
the prison buildings in the empire except the
principal ones recently built, are bad and
especially because they were built rapidly with
insufficient means and almost entirely without
supervision. either administrative or technical
speaking In the same report Of the life of the
eXlleS on the road, the governor general says:
parties OF prisoners under guard of d CONVOY
command go on foot from etape to etape. and
are whole months on the way, while the hard
LABOR conv1ctS who must go to the upper AInOOr
do not reach their destination in less than a
year from the time when they enter eastern ST
0erla- In the etapes the criminals and their fam
lies who voluntary accompany them. are kept
as FAR as possible in separate cells, but they
spend the greater part of the day together The
scenes of cebauchery to be witnessed here can
not possibly be described. All the shame and
conscience Jhat prisoner has left are lost here
completely. There go to Russia also the fami-
lies that voluntarily accompany criminals into
exile, without regard to age or sex. The sub
s1stence of the prisoners on the read is very ex-
pens1ve to the government, but the exileS are
| badly fed. Receiving food money in the shape
! OF cash IN hand, they rarely have warm food and
are very scantily Subsisted although innumer-
able rules have been established by law for the
regulation of the exile system. such rules be-
come for the most part dead letters from the
| very day of their enactment on account of their
| fmpracticality and the absence of supervision
| I'm the light of these extracts from official
reports of the governor general of eastern
| Siberia to the Car, l should like to ask Mr..
| Dunston in what respect he thinks the Russian
prison system is better than our own and what
raises the prisoners described by Governor
General Autchin to an equal plane with any in
our own country? But perhaps he thinks the
| encouragement of eastern Siberia is also "a
| SenSationaliSt given to eXaggeratiOn. Such is
| not the opinion of the better informed and more
competent judges than the American vice con-
| sul-general on the very report from which L
| have just quoted. The present Car, Alexander
| III, has endorsed in his own handwriting the
| significant words, a melancholy but not new
| picture
Twill Mr.. Dunston try to maintain that the
Gar of all the Russias is also a sensationalist
| eXaggerating the defects of his own system Of
| government? would only add that if Vice
| ConsulGeneral DunstOn's report to the consular
| nureau with regard to trade and commerce in
Russia are made with as little knowledge of the
subject as his statements concerning the Rus
sian prison system, they are not likely to be
of much value to American merchants