RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12995, 24 December 1907, Page 8

RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

The indifference ond al»onteoism that mark tho present Duma elections ire due» (wrote tie "Standard's" St. Petersburg oar respondent on October 2-tth) not only to the unfnirness of t.ho election law of lest Jujie, but to tho notion that the Government aro lirnilv heo.t on ri'ducins tJio Duma to abject submission. This idea grow, naturally out of the policy of the Government regarding tho two poet Dumae. It has i been confirmed by M. Btolypin himself. To living 3 few days ago with a landowner from -a province where ho w;is once Governor, the Premier observed :— "1 am not gping to toll yt>u my own views, but you would probebJy like to know those of tho Government. Th« Government will not bo satisfied with a Duma that will merely bo disposed to devote iteeJf to legislative work instead of agitation. It requires that, and more. It demands that the Duma shall be ontirelv eubmissivo, that it shell comply with all the demands that the Government may make"

On, the oecosion. of tho eecond arrnircrsarj- of the Imperial manifesto opening a "const itution«r era iji Russia, a Ruseien j>aper publishes tho following figures showing the price which tie Russian people havo paid during tho last two years for that important document : —'"Two thousand soven hundred aad seron'toen persons were sentenced to death, and 1780 executed; 3873 persons woro sentenced to hard labour in Siberia, 3268 to wn aggregate period of 29,523 veeirsj and 605 for lifo; 502 pereone were baniehod to Siberin for life, 5751 cereons were sentenced > to Jmprisonment for an aggregate period of 4236 years, 3588 have been locked up in (houses of detection for an. aggjregato period of 4136 years, 1538 have been sent to disciplinary battalions for an aggregate period of 3110 yeare, and 1307 pereons hare been placed in. fortresses for en aggregate period of 1680 years; 978 newepepere and other periodicals hero been suppressed, and 1114 editors prosecuted; 174 journals have besides been fined (mnoe the dissolution ot tho second Dunn) to the aggregate amount of £11,215. ALtosstJier 18,274 persons hare paid ttoeir penalty, wihirih means on an. aremgo more tlmn, 761 persons per monih, or over twenty-fir* perrons per diem. Of course, all tl» above penalties hare been imposed by the Oourte; the number of those wW were killed in confliote with the twry »nd the police.or from nombe, etc., is not counted.'*'