RUSSIAN ELECTION METHODS

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 26, 31 January 1907, Page 4

RUSSIAN ELECTION METHODS

HARASSED GEORGIAN PEASANTS AND THE DUMA. INTERESTING SIDELIGHTS. (Daily Chronicle's Correspondent.) ALAZAN VALLEY. It is Sunday, and tho villagers of the Caucasus have spent tho morning in electing the first "grade"' for next year's Duma. As you know, the representatives of Russian seasants are like cousins three times removed. They have acquaintance with only a very small part of their constituents. Tho peasants choose a large number of their own people at. tho first "grade." Those combine with other villages to appoint a smaller board out of their own number,'and these iv turn finally select the one member for the Duma. Like the whole method of Russian suffrage, it is a cumbersome and undemocratic system, but it has its advantages, especially for tha member himself. ' He need neither address public meetings (which ace forbidden) nor canvas from door to door, nor kiss the baby. If a British member of Parliament were elected like that he would.be relieved of many burdens— even, I think, of his subscription, totko cricket club. For many reasons it is better not to give the exact name of the place where I am. The authorities only desire an excuse for persecution, and already they act on the flimsiest suspicion. Men disappear from the villages and are no more heard of. I know organi«r« of co-operative societies exiled as disturbers of the peace,- apparently because thoy were making the peasants too prosperous. INSTRUMENTS OP TYRANNY. So for the sake of the villagers and my other friends I will only say that I am in one of tho beautiful and ancient towns that bang like eagles* nests high Over the broad valley of the Alazan, and look across it northward to the un? broken barrier of the central Caucasus. Behind that snowy rampart lies Daghestan, with its wild population of ancient Mohammedan tribes, famous even in the Caucasus for their skill in metal work. But both sides of the valley are occupied by Georgians, who in fortified towns like this withstood for centuries the onsets of Persians and other hosts of Islam. On fighting days they still wear coats of mail like Crusaders. But an enemy almost as terrible as Islam and more treacherous now stands in their midst. In every town and many villages companies of CosSacks and other Russian troops are stationed. Their barracks glares red, new, and hideous among the picturesque did streets. Flat-faced soldiers, with ; the innocent bnt stupid look of Central Russian peasants, move about, like men forbid, among a race tiiat have the features and bearing of wild falcons. You come upon them drilling in little black lines, and the Government seems to be only waiting its opportunity to loose them tipon this fertile valley, as it loosed them at the beginning of this year upon t-h* province further west. Going ddwtt early this morning from tho height of this town into a largish ▼illage upon the edge of the valley I found the whole mala population gathered oh a kind of village green in front of the churcn. The village shop was there, and in the centre stood an immemorial fcrs!e, hung round with bits of carcases that were to be cooked later on for Sunday's dinner. There Stood the communal school, built by subscriptions of the villagers themselves, but now closed because tho Government will not allow teaching id Georgian, the only language that tho children understand, and rather than give np their ancient tongue the people have rfghtly ■ determined •to do without a school. There, too, stood the shed called the town hall— the outward symbol of the Russian power. Nettles grew round it, the walls were falling in, the roof gaped with holes, and not a- villager could be found to stick on another tile. The peasants themselves wero gathered in an eager arid excited gfoup — big, wild-eyed men, shaggy in hairy caps and sheepskin coats. At the girdle of each hung the twa-foot dagger in the sheath of leather and silver work. The Government has forbidden its nse. Let the Government come and take it then ! ELECTION BY VILLAGERS, : The meeting was excited. Seventeen representatives had to be chosen from tins village alone aS members of the first grade. I attt not sure whether the candidates made speeches On their own behalf, "bat certainly all their friends spoke for them, and all spoke at once. This is not iti accordance 1 with English custom, but it has great advantage in saving time. At our own election meetings, tor instance, every one present is almost always agreed upon the choice 1 of candidate, and if all the speakers on the platform spoke- together the meetings would be sooner over and the result just the same. In Georgia there is the further difficulty added that in each case the voting must but unanimous or no one can be elected. Yet they manage it somehow. After all, it is only like an English club where one black-ball excludes, and before 1 the sun was high all the seventeen had somehow been selected without a dissentient voice. After working side by sidoi fof hall a lifetime, men get to know the stuff that each is made of. When the election was over a matter of business till remained befofo the meeting. One of the young ' villagers had gone astray and become an outcast. I could not discover exactly for what reason, but certainly it was not political. He had tated to common brigandage in the forests, and such brigands are killed at sight up and down' the Valley, as 1 often happens. In consequence^ he had been ertcluded < from the village commune, had lost his rights of- property, heritage, and vote, and was living tho life or a hare or wolf upon the hills. He had now sent a letter of penitence to the head of tho village imploring to be received" back into tho fold. Amid dead silence, in notable contrast to tho previous, shouting and gesticulation, the lotter" was read alond. The writer admitted hitf «rror*, and expressed his heartfelt contrition in simplo and un* affected words. He only nskod for" another chance, and his petition moved all hearts, for to forgive' is human. After bfJef debate it was agreed that his repentance Was sincere, ftrid ha was for"* mally readmitted into the community. Then with a; pleasant feeling of good* will towards men tho meeting dispersed, and" stood £b6iit in groups waiting for two wedding processions that were to pass that way. For now tho vintage is oVcf/ the ffittlze ii dried, the tobacco id gathered, arid voting mdri and maidens go mMryingj in bnffald carts before the Advent fast cuts merriment short. PASSIVE RESISTERB. Retarding to the- elections 1 must just montion that further up tho valley is a villages where the* h«ve refused to hold any election at all- "Last spring," they 'say, "wd had all deeiiott. Wo helped to fiend members to the Duma. They were good members, they did what they could,- but the Duma Was dissolved by th<r Russian Government, and tn6 members Were exposed to all manners of danger and persecution. Some woro imprisoned, some sent to Siberia, sorno assassinated by the Black Hundred, which calls itself tho loyal party. Ho have had Grtough of that. Wo will not oxposo any more of our friends to risks

so terrible. If that is the meaning of a Duma we prefer to bo without one, and lot tho foreign tyranny at St. Petersburg do its worst." _It is a fine example of passive rosistanco, fov you may bving your horse to water but you cannot mako him drink. So this Sunday morning a village green stands empty, and autocsacy will have to loam a new lesson in constitutional law before tho village votes. Yet if ever taxation justified a demand for suffrage it is in theso villages. The peasants whom I watched at the election have £2500 scraped off their income by the Government year by year to maintain the bureaucracy, to pay for enterprises like the Japanese war, and to supply tho interest on tho French and English loans. If thoy cannot pay they are Hogged and sold up. But they generally pay, for the valley is fairly rich. '•Your taxes ought to be twice as high, said the lato Governor of the province, as though the Sole object of a peasant's life weio to feed tho officials in St. Petersburg. But when he waa shortly after wauls assassinated I doubt if oven an epitaph could describe him as universally lamented.