gross exaggeration, both as to the amount of
the disease and the results, but the main thing
I want to convey with regard to prisoners and
captives is this—that in my deliberate judgment,
the Bolsheviks have led the way in being
more humane, more considerate in their treatment
of these people than any other Government
I know. Their ability to do right has been
circumscribed within the limits imposed by the
infamous blockade. No medicines, no anæsthetics,
no means of treating diseases, have left
them, of course, without the means of properly
dealing with sick prisoners. The effect of this
blockade which prevented medicines and
anæsthetics going into Russia was seen when a
British soldier was obliged to submit to an
operation for removal of his eye without an
anæsthetic. Hundreds of thousands of Russians
obliged to undergo operations were
treated in the same manner.
My claim for the Russian Government is that, within the limits of their means, and these limits were imposed from the outside by the infamous blockade and war, the Bolshevik Government has set the world an example as to the methods of dealing with prisoners.
