The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-11-10
andre MARTL,
French REBEL,
IN RED RUSSIA
Tells Horrible Story of
French Prisons
BY ANISE.
special 70 the Daily Worker)

MOSCOW, Oct. 20. - (By
fail. ANDRE MART is in Mos
;ow. MART the JaiIbird; Marti,
who was condemned to death
Tor high treason! He is address,
ing city councils amid applause.
He is being entertained by the
( Leningrad fleet and shown the
honors of Kronstadt. The vari-
Gus factories which have been
named in his honor rush into
print, telling how they have inn
proved production in the last
few years-aII in honor of
Marti.
For Marti was a jailbird in
France. And Marti is hero in
Russia. And the difference be-
tween these two extremes show
that in spite of the apparent
peace on the surface of the
world, in spite of trade treaties
and recognitions, there is a
great gap between what Russia
thinks and what some other
nations think.
Marti was one of those French
sailors in the Black Sea fleet who re-
fused to fight the Russian revolution
and led what is called by governments
at war; 'mutiny" against his com.
manders, and was brought home on
the promise of pardon, and then
promptly condemned to death. There
was quite a scandal about it at the
time, and so Martis sentence was
committed to Imprisonment, And al
the last elections he was sent as
deputy to the French parliament by
the Communists. so the government
rather had to let him out.
Cannot Visit Prisons
In fact an amusing change tool
place in the relation between Mart
and prison. After spending severa
years in closest inside contact witt
prison life, Marti cannot now, as mem
Der of parliament, get permission
from the department of justice ever
to visit the prisons any more. The.
are afraid he will talk too much abou
them.
And he does He is still smiling
sailor boy of France, with quicl
French movements of greetings as h,
turns to meet me in the Communis
international building. But there il
iron behind that smile, and purpose
Just now he has incidentally been ex
posing French prisons in an article
published in the Russian papers.
when Herriot came to power, W,
thought he would free the politica
prisoners" he remarks, "but he didn't
In fact he is arresting more Ant
thousands Of soldiers, arrested TO
wartime offenses, are still in tn,
worst of jails. One soldier of my &C
quaintance, who refused once to &,
Immediately for dinner through
deadly hail Of bullets, was given tel
years at hard labor.
E1CtfiOb against nGDSiS
"Herriot is especially against tn
revolutionary mutineers of the Blacl
Sea Fleet. A soldier who in Odess
refused to fight the Russian. revolu
ton is still in jail He was con
demned to death but his sentc ice wa
later committed to twenty years. An
other sailor in the terrible Africal
. prison got double sentence for an
swering back to an official who strucl
him.
There are also foreigners in tn
French jails, for offenses committed il
a foreign land. Hungarians who too
part in the Hungarian soviet govern
ment still languish in French prisons
The iails of the capitalists are inter
national, you see. Two Syrians are il
Jail for refusing to obey a Frencl
commander in Syria. A Soudanes
who was twice wounded in the Dan
danelles was given hard labor for lif
because he read the Koran to fellow
soldier and advised him not to figh
any more for the French.
Justice Is cockeyed
There is q class line in the tril
unals. Four months ago an ex-soldiel
working man of forty three year
with four children, was condemned Z
death by a military tribunal becaus
he had deserted during the war. On