A DESPERATE SITUATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 144, 19 June 1906, Page 5

A DESPERATE SITUATION.

THE DUMA THREATENED. FALL IN RUSSIAN BONDS. • LONDON, 18th June. The Times St. Petersburg correspondent reports that the political situation is nearly desperate. The authorities are powerless, the troops mutinous, and anarchy prevalent everywhere. The Duma is on the point of being extinguished. There has been a considerable fall in RussiaD bonds abroad. The Bourses afc Sfc. Petersburg and Moscow are in a state bordering on panic. Brokers predict certain financial disaster unless the Government yields to the Duma. Cossacks at Odessa, refused to fire on a meeting of strikers, who cheered a-nd hoisted the red flag, which the Cossacks insisted should be removed. The sailors at Kronstadt threaten not to tolerate interference with the Duma. STRIKE AT ARCHANGEL. SERIOUS POSITION AT KRONSTADT. i (Received June 19, 8.33 a.m.) ST. PETERSBURG, 18th June. There is a general strike at Archangel (the chier commercial town in the north of Russia). Steamers are unable to load or discharge. At Kronstadt the unrest among the sailors is increasing. The inhabitants are fleeing. Two regiments of Guards, with twelve quick-firers and twenty-two machine guns, have arrived from Krasnoe Selo. V DEPRESSING NEWS. (Received June 19, 8.40 a.m.) BERLIN, 18th June. Depressing news is published here respecting the Russian outlook. ARRESTS IN ZURICH. (Received June 19, 8.45 a.m.) ZURICH, 18th June. Sixty Russian student** of both sexes, who are supposed to be anarchists, have been arrested in a house in this city. Revolutionary 'pamphlets and a liquid supposed to be U6ed in the manufacture of an explosive have been seized. REACTIONARY INFLUENCES. With tihe resignation of Count Witte and the appointment of the Reactionary Premier, M. Goremykin, it was generally admitted that Russia was on the eve of stirring' events. Commenting on the change, the St. Petersburg correspondent of the London Telegraph cays : — "M. Goxemykin's appreciation of contemporary Russia and the still absolute spirit in, whitih he would correct history, and not only arrest) the sun and moon, like Joshua, but, turn back the hand of Time several decades, appear to me as evil omen*. The haste with which this official has been ruised to a dizzy eminence on the morrow of the loan is calculated to fill the friends of Russia with tiho greatest apprehension. Tli© act is eminently unwise. For the only official who has been removed is Count Witte, and Count Witto, whatever his faults, professed political principles M'itfli which tho civilised world sympathised. His influence was not powerful but, at least, it acted Jike the sight . of the mummy shown at Egyptian festivities — it served as a wholesome reminder and check on excesses. Now even that is gone, and, what is worse, the official called to occupy Count Witto's post is tv Reactionary stimulus, who has hitherto goaded, in lieu of curbing, the forces that have nearly ruined Russia. With ,M. Goremykin are. Mm. Duruovo and AM- ,

moff as Ministers and a group of hoary ancients, sticklers for the "good old times." Even if Count Witte had been able and willing to remain, tilings would be lively enough, because the Extreme Left has resolved to eschew the Representative Assembly as a place of legislative work, and to use it solely as a lever for revolutionising Russia. But now the very acme of political folly would seem to have been reached by the Reactionary Government and the Radical Left. As, when they collide, one side is flint and the other stteel, it is inevitable that sparks should fly about, and it is deplorable that inflammable and explosive material should be so abundant. THE FINANCIAL POSITION. On Saturday it was reported that a financial cataclysm was anticipated, Ac? cording to well informed authorities, the Russian Budget, despite ' its reticences and equivocation, has, no doubt, contributed more than anything else to stimulate the revolutionary cause. Year by year it has increased in bulk; in 1893 the actual expenditure amounted to little over £100,000,000; in 1903 it had exactly doubled, and the. estimates for 1906 provide for a total outlay of £265,712,000, of which only £4,665,000 are set apart for public education. War expenditure, strictly speaking,, does not figure in these totals, with the exception of about £43,000,000. which are included in this year's estimates. Such a remarkable growth of public expenditure should imply come compensatory justification in the increase of national prosperity (says one writer). Yet the contrary is to be noticed. Year by year the peasants, who. constitute four-fifths of the population, haye grown poorer and poorer. The causes of this lamentable discrepancy between the redundancy of public expenditure and the progressive impoverishment of the na. tion at large ,inusfc be sought in the fundamental principles of bureaucratic finance, principles which, despite the reputed excellence of the machinery of financial administration, carry in ihemselves the seeds of future cataclysm. . Whence does the Government derive the enormous sum of £213,000,000 to be expended this year, exclusive of payments on account of the war? Almost half the amount is to be provided by the spirit of monopoly (£60,150,000) and State railways (£50,250,000) ; Customs dues are expected to yield £22,580,000; direct, taxation £15,996,000 (including increased taxes lon commerce and industry), indirect taxation £44,965,000. Land redemption payments are reduced from £8,085,000 to £3,710,000. The outlay on railways, however, reduces the net profits under that head to £1,971,000, and the cost of worki'ig the spirit monopoly leaves a net profit of £41,699,000. It will thus be seen that over £65,000,000 figure in the Budget as the working expenses of the State in the dual capacities of liquor producer and railway owner. Of the remaining £148,000,000, more than half is swallowed up by the service of the State debt (£35,421,000), and the War Office (£39,667,000). The Ministry of Finance (£18,000,000, Exclusive of working expenses for the spirit monopoly), the Ministry of the Interior (£13,886,000), and the Ministry of Marine (£11,014,000)— a reduction of only £1,331,000), absorb about £43,000,000; of the remaining £30,000,000, the bulk is about equally divided between the Holy Synod (£3,081,000), the Department of Agriculture £3,812,000), the newly created Ministry of Commerce and Industry (£3,983,000), education (£4,665,000), and Justice (£5,510,000). It h easy to tell from this summary how ridiculously small is the proportion of public expenditure on public needs. Famine relief obtains only £3,200,000, instead of the £20,000,000 wanted. The figures above quoted suffice to account for the lamentable spread of poverty amongßt the Russian people, and give an eloquent testimony to the coirectness of the views propounded by critics of the Russian financial 6ystem, in contending that it is directed chitfly to the monopolisation of revenue, and the distribution of expenditure for the Government's own purposes without^ proper regard for the interests of the people.