The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-10-22
EIGHT THOUSAND
MURDERERS--RTSSlAY PENAL
 SETTLEMENT

On saknnitH Ef6aaniy ths WIS"
 Place in the wOrId-Ths Corrupt Officials aud the Brutal Treat msnL
 Recent English papers contain re- ports of an interview which Reuter- representative had with Charles H. Hawes, who has just returned from the Russian penaf settlement of Sakhalin' an island off the east coast of Siberia. The story told is startling, and to a de- gree horrifying in some of it's details. Sakhalin lies considerably north of the Japanese group, and geolOgically is a continuation of those islands.
 MT. Hawes had been travelling in Korea when he decided to visit the lsl- and, with a view to studying the na- tives and also of observing the condl- tion of the criminal settlers He pro ceeded with a convoy of exile barges, and was landed at Nicholaevsk. Si- berian settlement, opposite Sakhalln. Finally he succeeded in embarking on a tramp steamer, and was landed at Alexandrovsk, the chief center of the island. Arriving without any special permit, he was promptly arrested though eventually released under sur veillance Though he does not state it as a fact, it is intimated that his free dom was only secured through bribery, the officials of Sakhalin being mo- toriously corrupt. In the interview, MT. Hawes said:
 Immediately after my release l spent several days in AleXandrovsk, where, as in the other settlements, murder goes on with impunity. During my stay four people whom l met were murdered, including boy who was liv- ing In the same house with me. AL most every one in the streets is crim- inal, for, with few exceptions only the worst type of prisoners are sent to Sakhalin-certainly besides convicts, ex-convicts, their wives and children, and the officials, there are probably not 8 dozen free-born individuals on the island. Of murderes alone there are at least 5000, and one morning passed man in the street of whom I was warn ed to be careful, as he had already kill ed eight people.
 Tn Siberia-apart from the Arctic settlements, of which I know little-the exiles, as is now well known, are not cruelty treated, but their lot in Sak- halin is indeed bad, this being due not so much to the system itself as to the condition of life and the great distance from any central controlling influence. It is no exaggeratiOn to say that the majority of the officials are the dregs of the service-in too many cases drunken and brutal. The Russian gov ernment has recently been made aware of this state of things, and has practi- cally corroborated my statements in sending the Court of Irkutsk to try all most the entire convict staff for for gerry, fraud, embeZzlement, and worse.
 'I went over some of the prisons. De- spite continued contradictions that such thing exists, there are still two wretched prisoners chained night and day to wheelbarrows In Alexandrovsk prison there were 600 convicts packed in four apartments, each constructed to hold about fifty persons. While I was on the island nearly 1,S00 fresh prison CTS arrived, mostly for this prison, so its subsequent condition can perhaps be imagined. As the result of inquiry. l found that three -thonged whip with leaden ends, known as the Plet, the use of which Is forbidden in Russia, and is dying out in Siberia, is in general en- pIoyment here, and also the birch-rod dipped in salt. With this instrument two women were f1ogged in February last, whose accusers, two overseers, if report be true, ought rather to have been punished.
 '"The whole of Sakhalin is under martial law. In one of the prisons, out of total of 600 prisoners, 800, mostly chained, are kpet in enforced idleness, so that many go mad. The convict $ term of confinement in Sakhalin is fol- lowed by six years enforced residence in the island as exile settlers, and a further six years in Siberia as peasants after which they are free to return to Russia. but, as a matter of fact, nine teenths of the convicts never leave the island. Insanity is very common. Crime is rampant, even under the very eyes of the officials. My landlady, the wife of an official, said that she lived in terror of her life. never knowing on what night she might be murdered or her child killed for the sake of it's clothes
 ''The one bright spot on this island is the presence of an. heroic woman, Flu gene de Meyer, a young, attractive and enthusiastic lady. who is working alone amid these terrible surroundings She has no regard for danger and lately spent long time in the far in- terior with band of 200 convicts It is known that the Czarina is greatly in- terested in her work, and probably this is the reason why she does not meet with as much active hostility from the