Verigin Response to Johnson, July 28, 1919

Verigin, Sask. July 28th, 1919.

A.M. Johnson, Esq.,
Deputy Attorney-General,
Victoria, B.C.

Dear Sir:-

Your letter concerning the nude people I have carefully read, and am advising you that those people not belong to the Community. [...]

I have spoken a great deal with them and tried to influence them so that they will not make any trouble, they never listened to me and now I have no control over them at all. This the same people who burned down my house in Saskatchewan, valued over $5,000. I laid a change against them before the Government and the Government have convicted them and put them in gaol for 3 or 4 months, then released them again, and now they say if Verigin has been acting in such a manner and put usin the gaols we will again burn his property, in Saskatchewan, they say they will burn the Grain Elevators, and in British Columbia they threaten to burn down a Jam factory at Brilliant, and other valuable buildings owned by the Community, because they say it is not necessary to treasure up riches. [...]

The naked people are living on the Community land not far from Grand Forks on the Kettle Valley River, but they are settling there self-willedly. I never permitted them to settle there. [...]

The naked ones are the people, as they call themselves “free People” and are like prairie wolves, and I am well aware that there are still a great many jackals in Canada, in the prairies, which often come to the settlements of the people.

I may say to you Mr. Johnson, seriously, I cannot take any charge of catching the small beats [sic] in Canada, which are wandering in the prairies.

The Doukhobors and myself have come from Russia, to Canada, with the intention to work and live peaceably.

The principle of the Doukhobors is “Toil and Peaceful Life.”