RUSSIAN POLICE ATROCITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 31, 6 February 1905, Page 5

RUSSIAN POLICE ATROCITIES.

THE SLAUGHTER OF ISO 2. A_LEGED GHASTLY CRUELTY. It is interesting in connection with the present internal trouble in Russia to reproduce the following article by our London correspondent under date April 5, 1902: LONDON", April 5. Though official reports did not represent the suppression of the unarmed students' demonstration at St. Petersburg on March 17th as at all important. it baa been growing rapidly in horrors since priva-te letters begun to dcdge the censor. Perhaps, the most awful of these appeiured in the '"Daily News'' of Monday. One can only hope the facts are exaggerated, as, m-vk—ig a—wwances for foreign extravagances of diction, the writer seems decidedly n___rotic. But even after mentally sfcr_-g_te_Lng the narrative a bit it reads badly enough. Here are the cogent parts: The Cossack officer (the Essau) gave orders to use the "nagaika_," and threw himself first on tbe crowd, to show an e_—nple to his men. With all his might he hit the nearest student, and the student, after balancing a little, fell to the ground. Following the officer, the sergeant pressed forward, hitting with the whip in his right hand, __.d seizing with Ms left the students by the collar, and t_-owng them under his feet. Tb"en followed the "sotnega,"' the men. At first all became quiet-, as if no one cauld believe that totally unarmed men were being beaten by nagaikas. A ten-ible cry broke the stillness: a woman fell in" hysteric-. The crowd, cut off and surrounded by a detachment of Cossacks, waa crying and sobbirtg, but could do nothing. The nagaikas whizzed, the __bs of the policemen were knocking on the heads of the students, who offered no resistance, and generally did not grasp where they were. "Bat

it cannot possibly be," cried out a colonel in the crowd; "it is not the nagaikas. it is the striking of the hoofs against the pavement." Silently did the ■rrovrd give iray. ocd the colonel stood face to face before the Horror-S-snick, he seized his head in both hands, and ran along the street like mad. In the meantime the students, surrounded on all sides against the entrance of the colonnade, retired towards the Kazan Church, where at that time a service was being conducted, and the priest was bringing out the Holy Sacrament. It is there, at the church entrance, between the columns, where there is an inscription: "Come in the name of. our Lord/ that the lasx part of the most terrible drama was enacced. The nagaikas whizzed, and the students were falling to the ground row after row. One could hear the whiz and the crash oi the elubj

that were lowered on the heads. The Cossacks were ordered to retire, and their place was taken up by rue policemen. I do really nut know what was bettor. The Cossack.-, it id true, wen; iikting till blood streamed all over their victim*, but the policemen knocked them down to death. They knocked them on their faces and heads. One scudent who had dropped to the grouni with his head broken wai evideutlv trodden upon on his throat, and he was writhing and foaming 'in his death agony. The crowd was seized by a panic and made a rush to the church. The students became also brutaliied and broke the parapet: "'lf we are to light, we shall fight to death.'' The instinct of self-defence increased their strength tenfold, and th.- policemen had to retire. It was fearful to see them. maddened a.-s they were by the impossibility of warding off :he blows of the clubs by anything but bare hands. The hands were a-> ea.sily smashed as tho skulls which wore being split open by the tremendous knocks of the. policemen. One of the latter, more brutal than the rest, with bloodshot eyes and an enormous club, nearly fell over the lying body of a student. Immediately j medical student (lew at him. a fragment of a shaft flashed in the air, auJ the policeman iiumc down with, a crash.

In the meantime, in the church the policemen ware beaming to death the unhappy female students who had thought af finding protection with the priests; but the latter, instead of stopping the slaughter with a cross in their hands, locked themselves up in the altar. The policemen were seizing- the %irl~ by their hair and knocking their headd against the wall. A number o-f scu-Jents broke into the church, and

Dried to free the unhappy girls. Une student pi the Technological Institute, cut off from his comrades by the Cossacks, tried to break through the cordon. Then, seeing a brother of his falling voder the club of a policeman with his head split, and blood or brains streaming over his face. he went mad on the spot. It was horrible to see his eyes of a madman: it was still more horrible to see how in -i rage he betran bitinsr off pieces of flosh from his handi and throwing them at the CosAll the students who were pre--f>nt at the demonstration were sobbing and crying, many had hysterica! fits. Not a single eve-witness was afterwards able to finish his tale for rears.