Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-04-10
,one home il they have means Of reach.

come home il they have means OF reach
ing there. Few, however. of the released
conVictS ever make the return journey,
and the villages which comprise the coun-
try-likc for instance, Sumarokova in the
TurukhanSk district-are crowded with
these half-starved examples of humanity
who exist under the most pltiable con-
ditions-
! While the car in 1900 stopped to q
great extent the wholesale shipping of
offenders; to Siberia. much the same con-
dition is prevalent today as existed prior
to that date. Political offenders are SUBJ
jected to exactly the same punishment as
then. Banishment Is their sentence-not
to work in the mines and be fed by the
government. but transported to the Wild
est section of that dreary country and
there turned loose to live or die.
Recently the desolate Turukhansk dis
tr1ct, which covers q tract of about 72O
miles long in the neighborhood Of the
been there as totally unfit for human
habitation. has been used for this purpose
by the government.
The poor exiIes after the awful Journey
to reach this wasted country are cast
adrift and left to till the soil without
tools.
The government allowance to the eX-
patriated is about 90 cents month.
Were it not for the societies that the
exiles have formed for mutual benefit
ported would die within month Of
their arrival. Most of them are towns
people, unaccustomed to farm life. The
exile society takes them in. lends them
tools and In every way tries to soften
their hard lots.
A typical illustration of the indignities
that the political exile from Russia has
to endure was recently published In an
Austrian newspaper by a mother who re-
turned from Turukhansk after a visit to
her daughter. exile.
The woman intends to go back and join
her daughter again and is In Austria try
ing to raise funds among the socialists
for the betterment Of the exiles' condi-
ton in the village where the young
woman has been condemned to spend the
| rest of her life.
The mother followed the Russian police
to the street when they roughly awak-
in St Petersburg and told her that she
must make the terrible journey. She was
ordered back to the house. but chung to
her child persistently that the Cos
sacks allowed her to go with them.
, ''I went with my daughter with the in
tention of softening the journey for her
as much as possible" said the mother
during an address in Vienna We were
damned in a car with lot of men and
women under the supervision Of q lot of
soldiers. These british men seemed to
regard US as having no rights to lose and
treated us accordingly. For women this
journey Is awful. Whenever It was neces-
sary to change cars we were chained in
pairs. My daughter and l were often
separated and were fettered in both in
stances to the sides Of men.
I'm our car at one part of the Journey
were a number Of low women. exiled be-
cause they had no passports. The SOL
diers drank with these and we were
forced to witness outrageous scenes.
1.-THE train ride brought us to within
a hundred miles Of the nearest town. The
exile must make his way to it the best
way he can
The conditions, according to this poor
woman, are quite as bad, In this part of
Siberia at least, as the most narrowing
tales of writer's have described them.
If Car Nicholas issues the manifesto,
as 1t is confidently expected he will dur
ing the next few months. he will do more
toward turning into good citizens the
thousands Of nihilists and anarchists that
infest his empire than all the police of
the world could accomplish. The ruler
Of the Russians is one Of the brightest of
the crowned heads of the world. He can
not help but realize the need Of a change.
With what reform he will follow this
striking of the exile clause from the stat
utes is a question that the revolutionists