The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-03-27
SEAMEN FRAME D
And JAILED BY u. S.
CONSUL IN SYRIA
Talk of Union to Better
Conditions; Locked Up
Continued from Page One)

Continued from Page One)
port of Beirut, Syria.
Again Austino complained to the
chief engineer, this time with wit
nesses of the assault, but was ordered
out of the engineers office.
while the seamen were eating
dinner in the mess room on the day
we anchored at Beirut the second as
sistant engineer and another petty
officer walked into the mess hall,
strobe over to where I was eating
and began to slug me-" Austino said.
Austino Defends Self.
Austino defended himself however.
Both of the petty officers were given
surgical treatment when the fight
was over. But Austino was arrested
by a squad of police and taken off
the boat to the American consul Of
flee. In an effort to wiring q confess
sion of ''mutiny" out of him, he was
tortured. This failing, it was decided
TO frame a case against him.
"a trial was ordered" he continued.
THE consul acted as judge. Ameri
can business men We're impanelled as
a jury. And an attorney was as
signed to represent me. But the
lawyer argued against appealing to
my friends in America for funds to
obtain legal aid of my own.
Frame-Up System Used.
''At the consul's headquarters I de-
manded that the other workers in the
mess room be summoned as wit
nesses. Instead a third petty officer
was brought in to swear that /
slashed the two officers while they
were trying to stop a fight that they
said | started"
The jury of superintendent of
American business interests in Syria
found Austino guilty of assault with
intent to kill and five-year sentence
was imposed.
Transferred to U. S.
After serving almost a year in the
foul Beirut Jail, Austino's friends
here succeeded in getting an order of
transfer to Atlanta Penitentiary
Chained hand and foot, Austino was
taken to Marseilles, France, and led
aboard the navy cruiser Marblehead,
where he was kept chained in a Shiny
cell deep in the ships hold.
"The only relief / got from the
almost unbearable heat and smell in
the cruisers brig was when several
officers came armed with bayonetted
guns to take me to bath few times
during the % days it took to reach
Boston," Austino said. Several pals
of cold water We're thrown over me,
and with the chains still on my feet
| was led back to my cell. The
shackles were not taken off when
slept.
Serves Full Time.
"From Boston l was led handcuffed
to the federal prison, where l served
the full term in spite of numerous
letters to Attorney General Sargent
appealing against the frame up. My
letters were never answered" An
other letter to the consul in Beirut
was answered, however.
This letter demanded that the con-
sui return $75 in pay coming to Aus
tino at the time of his arrest and
other personal property taken from
him by the prison authorities. The
consul answered that the SIS in pay
was used to pay for his board in the
Beirut jail and that his personal be-
longings were being shipped to the
trarden under separate cover. The
My personal belongings that were
eturned were cheap watch inscribed
IN the back with the initials 81. w.
W." and several Spanish revolution
airy pamphlets. Other articles of
value, which did not tend to incrim-
mate Austino as a class conscious
worker, were never returned he added.