1954-01-11 — Page 4

Russians Made Me A Slave

Count Robert von Buttlar-Brandenfels, who worked as a slave for four years in a Siberian mine, talls his story to Colin Lawson,

I

"Do you ll refuse?"

Berlin. solitary confinement an brend asked, WAS kidnapped by and water. Then he is Soviet agents in West A second refusal means ten Berlin in April 1949 anys and sentenced to 25 years brings a fo so-called espionage. The

Russians sent me to ment

Vorkuta,

Siberia.

In Northern

and Д third -jacket.

I had one strail-jneket punish- WIN laid on my somuch. My hands were chained behind my back and my lest drawn up towards my head.

Then the laces of the jacket were gradually tightened until I und enough, After that I kepi en working.

There, with nearly half a million other prisoners, i slaved in the ever-expand- ing coal mines whore More brutal punishment was punishment is frequent and retdom used because it was not

death can come to a ITRELJI

quickly.

Tolling in the mines I

learned

two Important

things from

ITY fellow-

prisoners: 1-The standard of living in the Soviet is lower than pre-war. 2-The slave Bystem is highly organised and grimly efl cient,

I learned too that living condi-

¡VÕRKUTA"

ARCHANGEL

ŞIBERIAN PLAIN

needed. Food was enlculated to give about 2,100 calories a day-- enough for the job.

After your shift you had no

flons in a slave camp such anergy left to make trouble.

mine were wore than imagined.

The Vorkuta coal basin has 40 by 00 mines and is manned

labour camps.

No Escape

Escape is impossible. Com- municationS

and the are bad, Russians do not allow their own

from the people to go home camp after sentence pired

All you wanted to do was sleep.

leep

I normally weigh 1801b. the camp I came down to 117. Now I m 130 (9st 41b).

44

talked with 45 many prisoners from other areas possible. They told me of at least 16 more slave campa rang- ing

in size from 200,000 ta 500.000 workers,

Russia is now utterly depen. dent on the slave system. Why? Because it would need fantasti has ex cally high wages to attract free workers to man the mines, And of volun- even so, the number

be hopelessly in- ters would

During the four

years was More there. Vorkuta changed. permanent houses are and

going up adequate, a start has been made on sume right-storey flats.

des coal basin ly an int- parlant unit in Russia's economy and close control is kept from Moscow

The Kremlin works out all Its industrial plans according 10

Lorgots or

Every mani norms. and woman Is allotted a normi and it has to be reached.

The overweer has a norm-the combined output of his lenm He is punished if he fails.

Mine managers have norms-- the output of the overseers.

The Ministry of Coal controls Vorkuta, but the M.V.D.-secrel

Segregation

What of life at Vorkuta out ide the mines?

THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 1954.

1954

“And now I want to present a little boy who's come along to represent the symbol of 1954 ..

AN UNEXPECTED

BRINGS

BACK

come muestregn and considerablo ++++++

dignity. My

OME honours

later in Ufe than others and, therefore, I was gently touched other day when two the letters arrived from Har. bord Street

Collegiate In- stitute, Toronto. One was from a young lady as head

"

London Express Bervice."

REQUEST MEMORIES

By Beverley Baxter

brother had gone there before me and so had one and n of my younger aunts fernale cousin. "We look to you for big things."

said Principai TETITET Spotton. "The others were very done as might have been good students."

Owing to the modest marks which I had sconed in the en-

cage.

+++++++++

+ monkey and the parrot may Rugby squad and ended up as make to claints To a man n spare men on the Harbörd III as well as a woman, en otiric- team, which was as low as one tive voice is a asset beyond could go. My envy of the boy who played centro half on the pearls.

Firsts was so great that I would No one would try to be a tave given my very hope of

without studying the. singer

eternity to be in his place. physical processes by which Obviously ono's ego bocomes tene is created in the Darynx, hungry at an early age. ton passes through the open throat,

the the classes providing I am not asked any technical questions, ker and wonders if there are not some subjects which need an entirely new approach.

Quite rightly we were taught English history and duly learn of the Alumni Association, trance examination I was put in ed that there had been three

the lowest form of my yes, Richards,

Georges and four There was

an equal number of boys and girls, and almost

at seven Edwards on the English and All prisoners

get four days off every month. Men and

are strictly women Eegregated

We were allowed

Un]

ocen-

slonal evening concert, Living quarters were wooden barracks, with 10 men to a dormitory.

We were paki 250 roubics But that front £13) a month.

to buy was just enough

day and cigarettes

few cunces of extra bros.

found The Russians

I had

д

ve

police are responsible for ad- en to very in California ministration and security.

Two divisions of M.V.D. troops

the 120

miles Suard

#quare

which bold the 40 mines. A third division provides guards

side the 60 camps. inside

The Ministry asks the M.V.D. when extra workers are needed?. So, see, the midnight

you Jenock on the door which every Russian fears is rarely con- nected with genuine political has to get crime. The M.V.D. the labour, or else....

and promoted me to the plan- ming deportien: at Vorkuta.

fronie that one day I was re- viling the heartless swines who set my target. The next day 1 was one of the heartless swines.

To lighten the lot of workers was sabotage and meant a sc)- tence. So what would you have done many place!

• The count was released with

prisoners nearly 4,000 other

He believeI mostly GermGNS.

the m the Russians are freeing

to work Ox a pesture of international

A prisoner refusing at Vorkuta

Is given five days' goodwill,

and the other was from the Headmaster supporting her request,

All that she asked for were some memories of the three years that I spent in that emporium of learning. Apparently the Alumni has annual some quarterly or publication which keeps in touch with those who have enjoyed a Harbord educa-

tion.

we

A

gathers colour and depth in the Let me be perfectly

would have bem en inglorious

Take French for

cavities of the hond, gains example- French

an omelai

resonance on the bridge of the under any system of education I 幻 Canada. How hose and the hard palate and

frank.

I was beginning to find even

En

then that, whether it was music.

ence I was greatly struck with Throne. What earthly use wra language

Canadian high school has words imposed on it by the example to my fellow scholars. a king many the curls of Shirley Nowcombe, there in learning when

French when tipo os it leaves the mouth, were told scholars can haps there are Tho only difference between I ask her pardon for thus reigned unless

a large number but it was not singing and speaking is that publicising her but, on the other what happened to the country they leave?

so in my time. We were taught the tane is more sustained by myself. It is a tribute to the hand, her name has undoubtedly during the period? boen merged since then in the

all about French irregular the singer. nomenclature of marriage.

Personalities

were some striking per- THERE

sonalities among the teachers. We feared and liked "Tommy" Strath, our arithmetic master,

English Lesson

or writing or speaking, 1

only hornby, teaching

Great Fun

It is possible that we were

Harbord faculty of that

perlod were taught that taught about the industrial re verbs. We

English Is the richest and that I

left thero at the arge of 15 with no volution that altered the whole some words were masculine and

feminine. others

We

sense of frustration or were most beautiful of all languages.

A

system that could character of England and chang taught everything except how Shakespeare is acted in many failure. ed the

world, but face of the

is only in achieve something positive out but it to make conversation in French. Longues I doubt it. Probably we were

English that his full glory can of so disappointing a pupil as better informed on the glory of

be achieved. "Speak," said Dr myself must have had much to the 10th century b:cause of the

Johnson to a new acquaintance, recommend it. Armada, but I still think that

"so that I may know what you nation's story cannot be made

are." I at once decided to accede to the request, but fifty years make He often smoked a pencil, and up of kings and ware.

IN

Canadians do not have to a long road for memory to WDS beautifully

on sardonic

Undoubtedly we learned

wend their way through a my- travel.

perfect Brunhiide occasion. That pencil fascinated due course that Wolfe captured A I was twelve years old

ESPITE my father's righteous when I passert my entrance ex- me. He would place it in his Quebec

from

French woman was going to take the riad of accents like the British.

should Cumadanı

have with pupils

wrath. - which I mouth, inhale its rich fragrance although he would rather have "English hour* fifteen when amination and

to richest voices in the world, but from

tempered thirteen

by his tap the left Harbord as a finished pro-

Imaginary written Gray's Elegy.

But were averaging

did not attempt duct. Yet those years remain ushes

his little finger, we

German was start young. Undoubtedly, at write 01

my matriculation. surprisingly vivid. It 19 for Unhappily the science of arith. We given the history of Canada fifteen. In that entire hour not like singers they would have to

with its graduad progression one

Harbord in my time, we were wanted to get a job and earn easier to remember them than melic interested me much les trom Colonial to Dominion spoken,

made to read aloud but without the same length of time in the Like Algebra and Euclid it was status? My memory is that,

money, because earning The English was broken and any real attempt at volce pro money is great fun. a closed book that never opened broadly speaking, Canada

For better 1920's or 1930's.

If a duction. Perhaps the science of or worse I chose the university for me more than its first few not on the curriculum.

girl was lost for a phrase she speech is more advanced in the nt practical experience rather peges,

The Principal of Harbord was Mr Spotton, a little man of much

Elegance... plus COMFORT

The Van Heusen 'COUNTRY' Shirt worn with tie or bow, with or without a cont, in always correct and supremely comfortable. The attached semi-stiff Van Heusen Collar sets immaculately all day; there are both spread (aa iliustrated) and classical styles. Van Heusen 'COUNTRY' Shirts in fully shrunk poplin, are available in plain designs and neat woven stripes.

Van Heusen Shirts

Box 2106, Hong Kong

and

even

with

There

another master wus named

being Carstairs who, somewhat

his flamboyant in

effect dress, achieved an

of untidy degance which added much to the drab setting of the schoolroom. I think he taught us Latin but I would not take my oath on that.

tho

$3M

TN

1940, amidst the ruins of Berlin, I visited a girls' school.

of

n

word

twisted in all directions,

drew the meaning on the black- Canadian schools of today. board, and there was great

Great Advances rivalry to be the Orst to shout

A Blank

the

D

Was kindliness

to

than campus,

the cloisters 'and the

A

Those

affectation of speech, but that the female is an earne

the English explanation.

years from 12 to 15. are more important and impresalon- "Spik Anglisch!" boomed IDUCATIONAL experts might

able than we are apt to think. "Always you spik retort with some logic that it Brunhilde

NOTHING is so unattractive os At Harbord Collegiate I learned Anglisch!" It was not elegant No does not matter much what boys and girls learn at school English we heard nor was it al-

few things are less attractive part of the human race; I it was providing they go through the ways grammatical but

than a one-note voice that to reach school on time despite process

of learning, Young- understandable to British cars.

the go directly

from the larynx a congenital leaning towards Latin fascinated me from the sters in the junior forms at And the improvement at

was taught усту first day that we were high school age have not found end of the hour was simply to the nooo without deepening unpunctuality; T

its quality en route,

many things by teachers of both presented with Mensa, Mensao their feet nor their direction, phenomenal.

Doxes who ›, gave of their very To return to Harbord Street best.

make the Collegiate, let me

Ahead of us was the vast ad-

their

must go on

In

imd all the rest of the conjuga. The faithful finds summer I mot an old wartime abject confession that I was no

my Canadian tour last the

* friend who is now the head

hiph school. The gymnasium

French breast. Wing interest in my. Many time."

came to

emigrant

tions which could concern so training mundane a thing as a table. hope that the boys and girls Latin is so satisfying, so reliable, will find what interests them so fundamental. It was the only most and where they can excel. master of a beautifully modern good at anything except Latin venture ed the New World, with and literature. Euclid remained Canada as the Eldorado drawing subject in which I excelled and, In crowded classrooms, it is

complete blank although the the ambitious, the visionarie although memory can be an possible to concentrate on each was a dream, the assembly hall

was magnificent, the library versatility of X in Algebra and the mists of the Old World. awful liar, I think I was the scholar. Inevitably the bright- Was

go down to would was impressive. "Are you still roused er ones are discovered, although teaching head of the class in it.

the Union Station in Toronto later in life they may be passed yerbs?"

Irregular ⚫asked. Sadly ho Arithmetic I

I found that, like and watch the CPR Education 1s a tremendous in the race by some who were

in and nodded his head. "I'm afraid Stephen Leacock, I had a trains como - in - subject and we owe eternal, the sluggards and dullards, so,” he said.

Inorbid curiosity as to why A their way to the distant prairies ran faster than 13 while C was of the West. They had come There have undoubtedly been

Just

washout. Aa

from Holland, Germany, Britain for rom secret to the young. Yet, look great advances in the science of

Physics 1 merely locked on in and the Ukraine. I wondered ing back nearly half a century, teaching, and when next I visit to

mute bewilderment.

if in the years ahead I would I wonder if they did not crain Canada I shall report to the voleo production. Of all living

ever. have a chanco to too much into our heads and if Headmaster at Harbord and ask creatures only man was given the

Europe or even the Canadian the cramming was as skilfully permission to attend some of power of speech oven

Prairies. The world was so big in those days...

gratitude to the teachers who strive so hard to

impart

Now let us consider the matter of locution which has do with enimolation and

There were no laurels for me If the in any direction. I tried for the

DRALE DEL

INSURRECTION ON THE HORIZON The Challenge

By LES December 81. Include both surfaco and

In the un INSURRECTION appeared varieties (on hand

that one Lundy likely event on the British horizon Islander might want to write the other day-and was to another) and air mail studiously ignored, in ac to the mainlands (25 miles

away.) cordance with a long-stand-

to com- ing custom, by the govern They are alleged mont.

memorate the silver jubilee of The rebels, of course, were are, in fact, designed to glean collectors. the 20 inhabitants of Lundy funds from stamp Island; a sorsewhat dogmasing Lundy Island, after all, is not block of sheep-infested granite very wealthy, and a man has to out in the Bristol Channel.

·éat,

And it goes without saying

ARMOUR

five

names

on

SEW

How could we know that in

sciajevo Phtre boy named Principe, boy who used

to

'thu faland's ́postal system' and' Lundy was a "vest-pocket size disowned responsibld always-country to marcfi, the diMY. TOAď

the mint at Bristol to replace agent over to play cricket and out at night and listen to Ber- British currency on the land. he, in a moment of misguided bland talking rebellion against Thereby, he landed, in the soup. zcal, had entered all their Austria?

How could we now the electoral role that in 1914 young Principe The government hauled him when he returned.

fro a pistol shot that The owner also before the courts and fired him

protested would

send. hundreds pounds with 15 guineas that, in time of disaster," "such thousands of men to their death, costa (not payable in puffins.) 1 ne the murder of all the in-.

island the tumbling dynastie into our death, He appealed, pleading that mainland authorities had

habitants of the

and calling on youth) in every to death self-governing dominion." Any-

"Does that how, he noted, "puffins" were often?" enquired the Lord Chlef tord, did not, and

*that Har- not teach surely and appon Justice smid peair of laughter. Li, fecalade since Lundy, means "The Island

"It has happened two or three one and Briaing; guarded us 'times in the past,/!_replied - Mr.

the lust of Later brøndás. Harman with a grin.

Street Collegiate marmorial of 12: BE red, das

A The Clown was not Im- promed. It noted, acidly that

happen very

that the insurrection took. Its The postal system" started Mr Harman and the other three usual - form sin the : fanalog of postage stamps in competition in 1929 whet a Mt Martin Coles inhabitants, appeared on the The appeal," however, was in two world war

Kannars bought the laland for electoral" roles for the Farling, lost." But the government – Has" "But with the Port Omos: and pur- porting... (plainly / enough) to £16,000. Ho promptly andimentary constituency of Inatow allowed Lindy, to put on pre- of, those formatind havo i

not covered in nounced that the government and that therefore, they had tenaires to be a slaverning causes of the morit. the Coinage Act, 1870.1

post office could pack up chimen of the United Kingdoms Agro 60% oilerwis wrouddhibu wa wire tough to think acknowledged themselves to be dominion ever sinos koja schooldays, and Darbap

1

Curren

The stamps, large and gaudy, Then he ordered “, fifty- Me Herman explained calmly unsporting and any howl Lundy become clothes wires Dr range in price from ithalt ibousand, bronze, penseelsed that, it was tall a mintake. He, has "no" Harbours? mutable for | Bons had to know RÉMNÍCH Pub to 12 *pulia" " "Anay, coins labelled “pulipart from "had" invited a Conservative gunboats.