THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 6, 7 July 1906, Page 4

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT.

It is impossible to overlook the importance of to-day's news from Russia. Something like an ordered movement is at last visible amid the general confusion, and tho aspect affairs have assumed is one of serious menace to the authorities, whose hands are already full enough in the endeavour to repress intestine disorder. At Tiflis it was considered advisable during a military trial to post quickfiring guns in positions commanding the main thoroughfares ; there are more reports of murders of police, of garrisons refusing police duty, and of Cossacks showing sympathy with the revolutionary movement. The Tsar has been busy cashiering officers and reprimanding others — the Grand Duke Nicholas included — for failing to maintain discipline. Time 'was when the Imperial displeasure pnd formal censure meant much more than it does today. There are influences at work in Russia more potent than the nominal head of Church and State. The investigation ordered by the Duma into the Bielostok horrors has brought more awful details to light, and still further establishes the criminal complicity of the Government, whose official report may be estimated at its true value. The outrage by the police on a member of the Duma has roused fhat body to fury, and placed another weapon in, the hands of the Socialists, who threaten that if such a thing recurs Ministers shall be denied a hearing in the Duma. Most significant of all, however, is the representative congress held at the capital of Finland in anticipation of tho dissolution of the Duma, and its decision, in such an event, to declare a general rising, the signal to be given from St. Petersburg. The gathering represented the Peasants' Unions, the Social Revolutionary Party, the Labour group in the Duma, and the Finnish Red Ghiard. Who called the meeting? The secret of tho personality of the "White Hand," if it really exists, is unrevealed. But there seems behind this movement to be an organising brain. "The man of the hour" who should succeed in uniting the forces of revolution and directing them with tho requisite ability would attract to his assistance forces as yet latent, but practically irresistible. Only a week or two ago a leading Russian officer predicted an early "war of revenge" against Japan. If such a policy was contemplated for a moment, it was little short of madness. Onefourth of the army, according to official reports furnished to the Tsar, is disaffectecl — and it is quite possible that tho estimate might be doubled without much exaggeration. Excluding Cossacks, the soldiers and peasantry are of the same class and would be found side by side in a final struggle, while the Cossacks have no sentiment that would bind them to a losing cause. One thing seems clear — the Government will have to treat the Duma with all respect and deference, or it will soon cease to be a Government.