The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1901. THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM IN RUSSIA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 116, 17 May 1901, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1901. THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM IN RUSSIA.

Jor the cause that lades asslstanos, Tor the wrong tbat needs resistance, ■For the future in tiw distance, jnd the good that vn osn do.

Even the best informed English journals confess themselves unable to discover exactly what is happening in Russia at the present time. All that is certain is that the strong hand of tyranny still crushes its victims to the earth and stifles their cries. Everywhere are vague rumours of revolution and conspiracy, and the Imperial officials are pursuing their congenial task of arresting and imprisoning the best and noblest men and women in Eussia vrith all their usual ferocious brutality. Disraeli's famous epigram is unfortunately still true; and so long as Russian rule continues to be "despotism tempered by assassination," so long will the "disorders" and "outbreaks" of ijie last few weeks recur with ever increasing violence. An attempt has been made by .1 number of representative Russians to protest against the brutality displayed Iby the Government in dealing with Hhe University students. The Mutual j Aid Association of Russian writers has published a pathetic manifesto on the subject, appealing for- sympathy to public opinion throughout the civilised world. "Deprived of the possibility of freely expressing our ideas of the needs of our poor Fatherland, prevented by the censorship from speaking of what happens before our eyes, we resort to our foreign breth^ ren for the purpose of informing the civilised world of the atrocities now being committed against us." This document gives an account of the attack upon the St. Petersburg students, which practically confirms the horrible details that we have already reported. It states that the police fell upon an unarmed and inoffensive crowd of men, women, and children, and treated them "with, unexampled brutality and ferocity." The crowd was drawn together mostly by harmless curiosity; the Cossacks hemmed them in to prevent them from dispersing, and then attacked them with clubs and loaded whips. Horrified and helpless, the Association appeals to the press _pi the world to give the, utmost publicity to the lamentable facts which they attest. The only result of this appeal in Russia was the

immediate suppression of the Literary Society. "Meantime, over 2000 students were arrested in the three chief I universities alone, the gaols are crowded with cultured and refined men and women, and the Vienna papers declare that they are being freely flogged in the prisons. [t is a popular error to imagine that all advanced Russian thinkers are Nihilists. There is a great body of men | and women who, while neither Terrorists nor even Revolutionists, are determined to do what they can to obtain some share of constitutional liberty for their unfortunate country. The Party of Political Right includes a large proportion of the literary and professional men in the cities. It demands representative government, universal suffrage, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of meeting and association, and the independence of the Courts of Justice. Unfortunately, these claims have 'been often urged before without auy appreciable result. So faxback as 1865, the nobles of Moscow begged the Tsar to convene a represent' ative assembly of the whole people to discuss matters of interest to the State. In 1881, on the accession of Alexander 111., tlie Revolutionary Committee addressed to him a very remarkable letter setting forth their complaints and suggesting remedies. They asserted that there was no real Government in Russia: that, however good the intentions of the Tsar might be. the people were at the mercy of a "usurping gang of officials," who plundered . and destroyed them. They called upon the Tsar to grant a Constitution, with full freedom of speech and elective rights; and they warned him that without some such concession Government in Russia would become impossible. "We address you," they said, "as a citizen and an honest man," and, while admitting his cause for resentment, they pointed out that they too 'had lo.st fathers and brothers, wives and children, in the struggle for liberty, and that they would still persevere. The evils of tyranny had made the murder of Tsars popular in Russia. No repressive measures could e»pe with the indomitable resolve of the Revolutionaries. "You cannot," they told him, ''you cannot exterminate a whole people." But the murder of Alexander 11. was not likely to promote the cause of freedom; and the conflict thereafter was fiercer than before. Other protests of a more; conciliatory nature have been as futile. The letter presented by the Liberal Executive to Loris Melikoff. and signed by 25 of the foremost authors, lawyers, and University professors in, Russia, was a model of respectful moderation. Tt pointed out that Nihilism was the outcome of reasonable discontent, that Russia was fit for free institutions; that the censorship of the Press, and the suppression of public meetings were relics of barbarism; arid that the only way to insure the peace and prosperity of the country was to call a representative Parliament and give the people some share in political life. But all these appeals have been met with the same obstinate determination to maintain the autocracy in its most, despotk; form. The sympathy of those who love liberty throughout the world has been roused on the side of the Russian Liberals. The Society of the Friends of Russian. Freedom, founded by Dr. Spenee Watson in 1890, has done much to encourage, not conspiracy and outrage, bnt the desire for constitutional reform. Yet with this record of the past, few months before us, we.fear that Russia will have to wait weary years before her sons and daughters can enjoy even those simple privileges of personal liberty which are regarded as the inalienable right of humanity in more , favoured lands.