RUSSIAN POLICE'S DOUBLE-EDGED TOOLS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 698, 24 December 1909, Page 5

RUSSIAN POLICE'S DOUBLE-EDGED TOOLS.

, Th« Russian practice pf having police-paid agents among the revolutionaries, posing as revolutionaries, in-order to,sell tho secrets to. the police, is a two-edged sword, as the death of the chief detective 6hows. The case recalls that of the Terrorist .spy Eugene Az6ff,who is said to have sold both sides. It is alleged—though tho; Hussian Government denies tho allegation—that Azaff did not always till the-police all he knew, and that 1 certain .plots were consequently successful. .■ : jThe Russian police; maintain that they. cannot detect. Terrorist' plots without information from within,- but' declare that they do' hot tolerate such agents; being active within the revolutionary circle., "Wo cannot frustrato dastardly .plots," an official of the police department'explains, "unless we'contrive to obtain' timely information about them. This involves the employment of individuals who are members of tno, circles where these plots, are fabricated, and thij necessity, we consider ail unavoidable evil. But connivance at crime we rigorously' eliminate from our"'system in theory and practice. A reason of State cannot justify lawlessness; thereforej.if any agent perpetrates crime he will be dealt with as a criminal." And yet other accounts 'declare that Azeif did perpetrato crime, that he was not only an organiser but tho chief organiser, and that he organised plots which succeeded.

MAGISTRATE SHOT DEAD IN INDIA. A NATIVE ASSASSIN. ■ Calcutta, December 22. Mr. A. Jackson, Collector at Nasik, a seditious ■ centre in the Bombay Presidency, who 'recently; sentenced a man to penal servitude for life, was yesterday shot dead by a native while at the theatre. KOREAN PREMIER MURDERED. Seoul, December 22. Renter's Seoul correspondentstates that Yi-wan-ton, -tho Korean Premier, has been fatally stabbed. . [Th 6 Korean Ministers- are figure-heads. In each department thero is a vice-Mmister, who io a Japanese official. Japan is the directing force.J : r

ANOTHER PREMIER BADLY WOUNDED. ..." SHOTS .IN ROUMANIA. / Bucharest, December 22. ' .. A . workman fired threo shots, seriously wounding M. Bratiano, the Roumanian Premier. 1 [In January tho Premier of Roumania, M. Sturdza, resigned, owin& it was stated, to illhealth. His successor, M. Bratiano, was Ministor of tho Intoriorin tho Sturdza Ministry.]