Evening star., 1925-05-31
SIBERIA IN CHAOS
UNDER RED RULE
Scotch Spy, Expelled by
Soviet, Says Half PopuIa-
ton Is Unemployed.
BY r. A, MACKENZIE,

| BY Cable to The Star and Chicago Daily News.
RIGA, May 30.-A Scotchman, ar
rested as spy by the Russian secret
police in February, crossed the Lat
Wan frontier the other day dressed in
rough Siberian clothes, unkempt.
rough bearded, with red guards
watching his exit. He was John A.
| Cook, for many years a mining ac-
countant in Siberia. then attached to
military headquarters at Vladivo-
stock, and later assistant to Maj Fey
| monville, American military observer
4 at Chita. Cook elected to remain be-
hind after the American expedition
ary force had left, acting first as as
sistant to gold mining conces.
sionaire and then as language
| teacher.
His main work for some time was
sending regular reports secretly over
the Chinese frontier by Chinese
couriers to international business
houses. The reports detailed every
| aspect of life, military. social, eco
nomic, under the bolshevist regime.
The writer met him when in eastern
Siberia IN 1923 and suspected then his
real occupation.
Nationality Saves Life.
The secret police finally caught him
when, after police suspicious had
been aroused, he endeavored to
escape via Vladivostok They ex-
tracted a confession and then ex-
PEELED him. Cook says they told him
he was not shot because Russia did
not want trouble with England over
British subject.
Cook describes conditions in eastern
Siberia as one ruin. Chita, exceed
ingly prosperous under the Far East
ern Republic. which encouraged for
eign enterprise, now has cola psed in
dustrially and commercially, he says.
Over half the population is unem-
ployed The most prosperous bust
ness men flll the prisons The min
ing industry in Siberia is practically
wiped out, except for a few placer
gold, coal, silver and copper mines.
Two American companies with old
time concessions are doing practically
nothing. The British American To-
bacco Co., which was threatened
at one time with the closing of it's
Chita factory, still continues. Gov
ernment Industrial and commercial
undertakings, which absorbed nearly
all private enterprises after killing
on the original companies by high
taxation. now are in a state of inani-
ton, due partly to wholesale bribery
and pilfering, which every effort of
the police fails to control.
The peasants are disgruntled over
taxation. Last year many peasants
were arrested. Their discomfort will
seriously limit this years harvest.
Many Die Before Trial.
Cook describes his own treatment
in prison as good. Medical treatment
he says. was admirable, but the sani-
tary precautions were shocking. This
is due to tremendous overcrowding
Butirsky Prison, at Moscow, for in
stance, is so overcrowded that the
authorities find 1t Impossible to try
many cases before the prisoners die
Others have been waiting for two
years unheard. Many go on hunger
strikes TO force attention upon them
selves. There are two rooms in the
prison devoted wholly to treatment of
hunger strikers, of whom there are
often to 12 at a time.
Cook says that in his brief times
out of solitary confinement he saw
many fresh prisoners, particularly
workmen and members of the intel
| ligentsia. being brought to prison.
| Copyright. 1898 by Chicago Daily News Coz