THE RUSSIAN TERROR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 18 May 1907, Page 1

THE RUSSIAN TERROR.

MURDER BY MONARCHISTS. A SENSATIONAL TRIAL. A St. Petersburg correspondent writes under date February 23rd : — Last autumn Mr Herzenstein, a great ! financier, who had been a Liberal member of the first Duma, where he distin-■-ruished himself by ono speech in which he smashed to pieces the Government's defence of its agrarian policy, was shot dead by some unknown pei'soils while walking with his young daughter near I his villa at Teri-i-a, in Finland. A mysterious feature of tlie case was the fact that, several hours before the crime was committed, a telephone message was received at the editorial offices of the "Retch," iv St. Petersburg, asking if Mr Merzenstein had been killed. Despite this undoubted clue, the police seemed to treat the matter as of no consequence, and soon abandoned even the pretence of conducti*ii' investigation in connection with it ; but Mr Hcrzenstein's fellow-members of the "Kad-A" party made inquiries for themselves, with the result that, near the scene of the murder, there is now being held a trial which is exciting as much interest in Russia as tho famous Parnell Commission excited in Ireland. The persons on trial are members of an extreme anti-Jewish and anti-Libe-ral association, whose members, according to the confession wrung from theso men in cross-examination, are all allowed to carry-service revolvers, presumably supplied from Government stores. To-day (February 22) one of the men caused a great sensation in murt by declaring that the murder of Vr Her?.i»llsteill Was o.nrvicd out by i^.roc m«n belonging to this "patriotic" -issn'-intinn. which subsequently paid tlmm for the job. The Liberals assert that the authorities _ know of this all 1 along, and that written proof of this 1 ovists in the department of police, and. considering that they have so far made •"rood all their accusations in connection with this case, it is highly probable that they are right here also. Meanwhile this same "patriotic" association is. causing such trouble in Odessa that ail the foreign consuls have telerrraphed to their Governments that the lives and property of their nationals are unsafe, and to-day "The Russian Banner," the organ of the association, contains in iarge ietters on its front page .an anho*(incement. to the effect that four prominent leaders of the Kadet parly, whose names it gives, will have to answer with their lives for any attempt on the lives of two obscure members - of their brotherhood -who lately received anonymous threatening letters.