RUSSIA AND JAPAN

Evening Star, Issue 12606, 11 September 1905, Page 7

RUSSIA AND JAPAN

Vttu Anostrttow By teUgrafk^opyrigte, THE PEASE* TREATY. ! PROTESTS FROM JAPAN. TBRJIS OF PEACE PUBLISHED, THE BBVOLT"BUBSn>EB. TOKIO, September 9. Tbt municipality of Tokio have passed % csMotatioa denouncing tho pease terms and Wtgiag tbe see-ratification of the Peace Treaty. Thousands of responsible citizens were associated with the earlier rioting, but the crowds now largely consist of the lower orders and the rowdy elements among the Itodents. The soldiers, who are popular, are more successful than, the police in restraining the people. The leaders of tha various political parties have agreed to urge a speedy summoning of the Diet as the best means of restoring tranquillity. The Government suspended five papersCount Katsura, the Premier, yielding to public feeling, published the peace terras to-day. He states thai Japan is not bound to leave tho 1* Perouse Strait unfortified. This, coupled with an assurance that Japan is. given an entirely free band in Cores, is expected to calm the excitement. MINISTERIAL EXPLANATIONS. TOKIO September 10. The Premier also addressed an informal meeting of all parties in the Diet, newspaper editors, and other influential personages. He fully explained the terms of the Peace Treaty. Admiral Baron Yamomoto, Minister of Marine, said that the capture of VTadivostock would have entailed a far more serious sacrifice of lives and money than the capture of Port Arthur. These statements produced an excellent effect, and Tokio is now quiet. MORE CONGRATULATIONS. WASHINGTON, September 9. The Emperor of China and the Dowager Empress hare heartily felicitated President Roosevelt on his grand achievement in securing a peace benefiting the whole world. THE CZAR WANTED PEACE. BERLIN, September 9. The Kaiser is reported to have said that the Czar had asked him to request President RoosaveJt to arrange a Peace Conference. A WASTEFUL DESTRUCTION. INDISCREET SALVATIONISTS. TOKIO, September 10. (Received September 11, at 8.29 a.m.) The coolie class in Tokio destroyed thirty electric cars. The destruction of the Christian churches was due to the indiscretion of the Salvationists in publicly denouncing the antipeace movement in the streets during a popular commotion. SAGHAUEN THE PERILOUS. With regard to the statement by the correspondent of the ' Telegraph' that when the Russians retreated from Korsakovsk the prison was set on fire and seventy-one convicts who were liberated ran riot, a Russian correspondent says: —" The life of the convict exiles is a frightful nightmare. It is a medley of debauchery, insolence, and impudence, co-existent with true suffering and , inSescribable privations. The very name that the Russian convicts have given to Sagbalien, ' Perilous Island,' characterises the conditions they have to endure. AU convicts in Sagihalien are divided into two elascys—those who are bound by fetters for a long period or for life are called 'Kandamy' (fettered). Those free of fetters, serving a period not less than four years, are nicknamed ' Shpanka' (blister fly). Some convicts are destined, on paper, to serve ninety or more years, although tbe original sentence may have been for ten rears only. You see a smal board hanging in the cells with inscriptions: twenty years, plus fifteen years, plus ten years, plus fifteen/and a-half years, plus twenty years; and on the next door six years, plus ten years, plus fifteen years, plus twenty years. This means that a convict with xix years original sentence has made attempts to escape or used abusive language to a keeper, for which the chief of the prison may add by a stroke of A. pen ten. fifteen, or twenty, or as many years as he pleases. Tbe militia is composed of 'Shpankas,' who are now notably changed in all respects, looking in their new wrtf*" rm quite happy and ready to meet the enemy. The ' KanHarny' convicts, however, are deprived of all possibilities to join the militia, and are exiled in the depths of the island, in anticipation of their discontent, and to provide against their possible evil influence on. those 'reformed' convicts who are now caHed defenders of tho ' Fatherland.' When the Imperial manifesto declaring thai each two months' service in the m3iti» would reduce a year of their sentence tos made known to the fettered coavicte, one of them exclaimed to a fellow convict, now a militiaman: 'Nitchevo (never mind), vou have bad your manifesto reducing one year to two months; we will wait for the manifesto of the Mikado reducing our total conviction to a twenty-four hours' notice to dear the island. Au revoir! We will meet again in Russia.'"

DANGEROUS TRAVELLING. In the existing state of agrarian affairs It is scarcely to be wondered at that the highways are becoming unsafe alike for officials and foreigners travelling without escorts. Two Englishmen resident jn Odessa, Mr Sydney Eeid and Mr George Neame, with a obauffeur, left reeentlv in a motor car, on a visit to Count Stadnitzki, who owns a considerable estate in Podolia. At a village called Parennva they were held up by a mob of peasants, manv of whom were drunk and inclined to viblenc*. They aocuaed the Englishmen of being Japanese, and demanded their passports. Messrs Beid and Neame, who both «peak Russian well, protested, and asked for tbe local policeman. To this official they showed their passports, which, in view of possible emergencies, they had made out for abroad. The police official glanced at the passports, then held them aloft with the qurrtion, addressed to the crowd of peasants: " Kto . mozhno chrtatr ("Who can read?") There was no reply. Neither this guardian of the village nor any sngle person among the peasant mob could read! This occurred about sundown. A few of the bolder of the peasants attempted to seize tbe motor car, but with tbe assistance of the policeman it was brought to the door of the village tavern, and the gear locked. Tbe leader of the mob entered the tavern and seated himself at the table occupied by Messrs Reid and Neame. Against tins impertinence the Englishmen protested, and this led to an angry passage between the policeman and the drunken peasant. It was fortunate that no blows were exchanged, as such a contretemps at this juncture would have precipitated matters and imperilled the lives of the Englishmen and the tavern-keeper, who was a Jew. At midnight the mob •greed to await the Yuriadnik's arrival in the morning, when the fate of the Englishmen and toe motor car would be decided. Messrs Reid and Neame kept a vigilant watch, and at three o'clock in tbe morning nicceeded in making a stealthy and safe exit from the village. bussian superstition. Supenititioua beliefs, which linger in many districts of Russia, led to the sad death of a woman at Klimusko, about fifty miles south of Moscow. Cholera had prevailed in the district for seme weeks, and in order to scare away tbe " cholera demons," which it was believed were responsible for the violation, midnigiht_procession» were held by the women of Klimusko. Barefooted, with unkempt hair, and clad only in their night garments, hundreds of women and girls paraded along the streets carrying sacred ikons and singing weird chants. Two and women led the procession, and were followed' by two others, one bearing a pitchfork with which the "demons" were §o be> hurled back to perdition, whilst the J

second dragged a plough for the purpose of catting in pieces the brood of "young demons." On tho last occasion the procession was passing along tile thorougbJaref, the woman who carried the pitchfork suddenly 'went mad, and rushed towards aaother woman who was standing by the roadside watching tke procession. Shout* ing "Here is the <Aief cholera demon> J» the flesh!" she dealt the latter a terrible blow with the pitchfork. Then, before she could be mastered, with a furious thrust uhe impaled the woman on the fork, crying " Into the fire with the demon queen r She hurled her against a brick wall, and then collapsed, and fell fainting into toe roai. The other woman di%d shortly after* wards from her injuries, and the processions were probibite<r.