THE DESPAIR OF THE AUTOCRACY.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 147, 19 December 1905, Page 6

THE DESPAIR OF THE AUTOCRACY.

The enormous extent of the Russian Empire is such as to prevent the magnitude of the 1 evolutionary movement being fully recognised. It is more than probable that many of the evidences v of disquiet, as well as much of tho sanguinary work of repression, is never known to the press agencies; for we may be assured that whenever official censorship can be effectively exorcised the truth will be suppressed. Had the atrocities of tha past few weeks been concentrated within a 1 comparatively email area, the terrible con- ! dition of national' life they indicate -would ! have been more fully appreciated. Today, for example, the press messages deal With five distinct regions : St. Petersburg, Livonia, Moscow, Batouin, and Irkutsk. Prom the capital to Batoum, almost in the extreme south of the Empire, is nearly twice as far as from Stewart's Island to' the North Cape of New Zealand,, and from the same point eastward to the disaffeoted army in Manchuria is about twice as far again. The demands of the Manchurian soldiers are substantially ,the hame as those <?f the popular party at Petersburg, and give another evidence of the understanding that exists between them. The Government is already hard pressed to maintain the national credit. It has sent abroad five millions, presumably in payment of interest ; but it has t been driven to annex the "Red [ Cross funds. The avowed intention pf the revolutionaries to repudiate public obligations incurred since tho Government "openly waged war against the nation" should make further borrowing impossible at present, and may cause :a, further fall in securities. Dishonest finance, the reformers declare, has brought the nation to the point of bankruptcy, and the Government must be overthrown and deprived of the taxes. When once the impression becomes general that the autocracy is doomed, the bulk of the army and the police may be expected to cast in their lot with the revolutionaries, and for a time the movement will probably pasd beyond the control of its leaders. It is significant in this connection to notice that the plainspoken revolutionary manifesto, the publication of which amounts to "high treason," has appeared hv all the leading newspapers except the Novoe Vremya. The editors are under arrest— probably, as in France, the newspapers keep a "gerant responsible," whose duty is to go to prison while the real editor continues to write — but the people are buying printed copies of the manifesto under the eyes of the police. Irresolute as ever, and "infirm of purpose," the Tsar is offering sops to the Cerberus of revolution, while at tho same time / he fulminates threats and continues t& make arrests. The arrest of the whole Council of Workmen's Delegates, two hundred and fifty in number, is an act of folly approaching insanity. The press refuses to be muzzled, and with extraordinary daring the Russ urges the nation to organise against Witte. Throughout Livonia the revolutionary party appears to be still in the ascendant, .and Prince Bulow, the German Chancellor, is chartering steamers to remove the German residents, This is a "large order," as in Riga alone they number nearly fifty thousand. The news from Moscow would seem to indicate serious division in the revolutionary ranks. The mutinous troops repented, cheered the Tsar, and hynded the ringleaders over to the authorities. The item has a suspicious appearance — as ifl an official censor had a hand in its preparation. It is not unlike the "news" in thc-se daily papers printed for the sole information of the Tsar. Admitting that the demands of the people are "largely justified," the authorities have no remedies but promises that they have no apparent intention of redeeming, and the summary methods of martial law. Meantime the fateful 22nd of January— the anniversary of "Red Sunday"— comes daily nearer, and the preparations of the revolutionary committees are apparently advancing. There may be some truth^n the prevalent idea that tho recent repressive measures were adopted with the deliberate intention of provoking prematum action. If so, it is a counsel of despair The downfall ofl the whole fabric of Russian autocracy seems near at hand, and should it come, all Europe will vibrate with the crash.