The Jews in Russia.

Evening Star, Issue 8483, 7 April 1891, Page 4

The Jews in Russia.

, London, February 10. The St. Petersburg correspondent of the 'Daily Telegraph* of this city telegraphs from St. Petersburg important faots in connection with the possible result of the return by the Czar, without comment, of the Guildhall memorial in favor of the unfortunate Buffering Hebrews cf Rueßia. The correspondent wires : British sympathy has aggravated the Jews' hard lot, whioh waß already bo wretohed that it seemed Impossible for it to be worse. Yet the provincial Governors have redoubled the severity of the laws. Where the statutes were inapplicable the Governors have issued circulars and ukases to replace them. The Jews bitterly regret the British well-meaning but injudioious zeal which has exasperated instead of soothing the Russian bear. The daily severities practised against the families of unoffending men, women, and ohildren are incredible and wanton. Russia's reply to the Lord Mayor's respectful petition' consists of secret ciroulars ordering her officials to rigorously administer the anti-Semitic laws,, and to supply the legal deficiency by their own decisions, harmonious with the Government's intolerant spirit. The Poles, after the rebellion of 1864, were less cruelly and less inhumanely treated than the Jews after the London indignation meeting. HOW HEBREW CONSCRIPTS ABE TREATED. General Gurko, Governor of Warsaw, has issued a circular regulating how Jewish recruits are to be brought for medical inspection. The Jews, through the wretched lives they are foroed to live, are physically degenerate, and become a most striking embodiment of human life continuing in spite of gradual decay of the vital functions. \ The majority o£ tbe Jewish recruits are found to be unfit for service, In the event of Christians being found unfit to perform the duties of a soldier they are sent home, and _ are finally released from military service. The Jewish recruits, on the other hand, are worried to death. They are sent home, and are subject during a period of three years to be recalled at any moment on the suspicion of malingering. The recruit, consequently, returns to Mb home (hundreds of miles away), resumes his occupation/ and a month later is suddenly ordered to reappear for medical examination. This prooess is repeated at intervals of a few months during three years. General Gurko considers this method to be insufficient, as it leaves the Jewish conscript the option of transporting himself, on foot or otherwise, to the town where the Medical Committee sits, and gives him a dangerous liberty and opportuniny to simulate illness. The result is that henceforth the polioe are ordered to convey the Jews on foot to the town where the Committee bUb. The police are to arrest and imprison recruits until the convict gang arrives, with whioh they are to proceed to the next prison, in company with murderers and the dregs of society, until they reaoh their destination. Young men beginning life are subject to a repetition of this process during three years, until the youth wishes himself a soldier, serf, or galley slave to save himself from the society of murderers and thieves, who, while the Jewish recruits are in their gang, have the power of life or death over them—can blackmail them, whip them, maim them, even kill them with impunity. The victims are frequently in delicate health, and include consumptive patients, who, the Russian doctors declare, are unable to bear the hardships of military service. MOSCOW IN DEBT TO THE JEWS. A strange anomaly is Prince Dolgoroukoif, Governor of Moscow, the Czar's intimate confidential friend, whose oonduct is in flat contradiction with the anti-Jewish current, the explanation whereof is very sad. Prince Dolgoroukoff has always represented the Czar with pomp and pageantry, giving brilliant balls and dinners requiring Foitunatus's purse. Moscow has always treated the Jews better than any other place in Russia. To them Prince Dolgoroukoff turned for monetary succor, and the Jews embodied their gratitude in rubies. Free gifts were succeeded by loans, and it has now transpired that the vice-regal court of Moscow is overwhelmed with debt to wealthy Jews.

Instead of exercising severity Prince Dolgoroukoff allowed the Jews to construct a bath near the cathedral. The Czar's indignation at this was boundless. Englishmen are prone to believe that the Czar does not know the enormities perpetrated in his name. The truth is that the Czar, knows enough to convince him that the Jews are more cruelly treated than horses, kine, or swine, whioh are cared for as the gifts of God.

A number of eminent Russian literary men recently addressed a declaration to the public and to journalists asking them to remember that the Jews were human beings. The Government refused to allow the declaration to be published, Thereupon people exclaimed that if the Czar knew it he would rescind the order. A personal friend of the Czar recently laid the document before him, with an humble letter from the authors asking for permission to publish it. The Czar read both papers and then flung them away,