RUSSIA’S FREE PRESS.

Evening Star, Issue 14053, 7 May 1909, Page 3

RUSSIA’S FREE PRESS.

A young journalist on the staff of the ‘ Odesski tistok,’ Sergius Fedorovich Stern, the son of a wealthy local house proprietor, has been sentenced to a month’s arrest by order of the Governor for discussing the qualifications of several new candidates for municipal election. The incident is noteworthy, inasmuch as it further illustrates the so-called, political freedom vouchsafed under the present reactionary regime. It is difficult to imagine a municipal or parliamentary election without some little public agitation with regard to the candidates, their principles, and their capabilities. M. Stern, who is a journalist of brilliant parte, naturally thought himself at full liberty to discuss the fitness of various municipal candidates, differentiating between the Progressives and the Black Hundred, and advocating the claims of the former. He was summoned to the Governor’s chancery a couple of days ago, and curtly and peremptorily informed by His Excellency that no agitation or discussion was permissible, nor even any canvassing of the claims of the various candidates for municipal honors. The electors might vote as they pleased, but they needed to enlightenment from the Press. On tfc* conclusion of this little gubernatorial homily, M. Stern was given into the charge of two waiting gendarmes and taken to prison for a month. There is no possible appeal against these arbitrary acts of a Russian Governor, who is to all intents and purposes an irresponsible dictator within the limits of his official jurisdiction.—Odessa correspondent of the ‘ Evening Standard.’