ENSATIONAL BOMB OUTRAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 180, 29 July 1904, Page 5

ENSA TIONAL BOMB OUTRAGE.

DE PXJEHVE ASSASSINATED.

OTHERS KILLED AND INJURED.

GREAT DAMAGE IN V2CINITY.

(Received 9.20 aan.)

(By Cable.—Frees Association.— Copyright.)

ST. PETERSBURG, July 28*

M. de Plehvehas been assassinated.

The Minister of the Interior was at the time on his way to obtaufan audience Of the Czar, and was driving in his wellknown carriage along the Ismailovsky Prospect

Suddenly a man rushed from a restaurant near a station on the Warsaw railway, and hurled a heavy, dark object towards M. de Plehve*s carriage.

A terrific explosion followed, and it was realised in a moment that the Miniatei had been assassinated by a bomb.

Crowds quickly hurried to the scene from all quarters, and for a few moments it was impossible to ascertain the precise extent of the damage. When tiie authorities reached the spot they found that the bomb had more than done its work. The Minister had been killed outright.

His body was shockingly mutilated, his left arm and both of his legs having been completely dismembered.

Among the wreckage of the carriage the body of the unfortunate coachman was found, it also having" been terribly mangled by the explosion; while the dead bodies 01 his horses lay also among the debris. Several persons who were drivng near the scene of the disaster were injured, while it is stated that some -were killed outright. All the windpws in the vicinity were smashed, and the pavement was torn up for a considerable distance.

CONSTERNATION IN RUSSIA.

AIT ARREST MADE. (Received 10.45 ajn.) .

ST. PETERSBURG, July 28

The assassination of M. de Plehve has created the utmost consternation throughout Russia.

The arrest has just been made of a Jew, but it is uncertain whether he is the actual assassin of the Minister of the Interior.

The murder of M. de Plehve is a significant sign of the social and political discontent with which Russia is now seething. The late Minister for the Interior was an ideal bureaucrat, whose influence went steadily in the direction of curtailing the liberties of the people and centralising all authority in the hands of a few irresponsible officials. He was "Sα full sympathy with the reactionary policy of M. Pobiedonostzeff, the Procurator of the Holy Synod, and helped him to persuade or overawe tEe Tsar into destroying the freedom and nationality of tfie Finns. Las£ year he had gained such ascendancy iA the Imperial Councils that he sliceeeded in displacing M. de Witt,e the able and cautious"' financier, under whose guidance Russia was slowly developing her vast industrial and commercial resources. From the removal of /de Witte dates the acceleration of the; "forward" policy in the Far East, which this yeat; has brought disaster upon Russia. Since Side Plehve has- been in $he ascendant his name has always beeu connected in the - popular mind with repression and tyrany. Last year he was President of the Imperial Commission, which was appointed to carry out various, political reforms among the rural communes; and he succeeded not only in reducing the privileges of the Zemstvos, but in giving largely increased authoi*ity to the bureaucracy which he directed. The massacre of the Jews at Kishineff, which I sent a thrill of horror through Christendom, was connived at by M. de Plehve, for the "Times" succeeded in obtaining a copy of the confidential despatch which de Plehve sent to the (governor of Bessarabia, ordering him iiot to use force to protect the Jews or put down the rioters. Horrible , as is the crime which closed his career,' it is impossible to >feel any astonishment that the system of tyranny which such men represent should drive their victims to despesation. The murders of de plehve and his coadjutor Bolenkbff add fresh point to the old aphorism that Russian rule is "despotism tempered by assassination."