RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13303, 9 October 1906, Page 5

RUSSIA.

COLOSSAL FRAUDS.

THE OCTOBERISTS. CONGRESS AT HELSINGFORS. -By Telegraph.— Association.—Copyright (Received October 8, 9.44 p.m.) St. Petersburg, October 8. Five hundred delegates are attending the Congress of Constitutional Democrats at Helsingfors. They have endorsed the manifesto adopted at a previous Congress at Tiborg. " '■ ; :-' ' ' ;■•'■.' j \ It was considered that the present] circumstances are unfavourable for I the immediate applying of passive resistance on a large scale, especially in regard to the military service. The provincial delegates did not. agree that an immediate boycott in regard to taxes and conscription was impossible. It was decided to collect money fey." the reJief of the Siberian exiles, who, it was reported, are enduring terrible hardships.. * The A 7 iborg conference" referred to is evii dently that held by two-thirds of the mem- ] bers immediately after the dissolution of the l Duma. At that conference a manifesto was adopted in which the members appealed to the citizens to stand up for their trampledon right of popular representation in an Imperial Duma, and added : " Russia must not remain a day without popular representation. You possess the means of acquiring it. The Government without the assent of 'the popular representatives has no right to collect taxes or to summon the people to military service. Now J-hat the Government lias dissolved the Duma the peof)Te are justi-

fied in giving neither money nor soldiers. All loans raised by the Government -without the consent of the popular representatives will be invalid, and the nation will never acknowledge its liability; therefore until popular representatives are summoned do not give a kopeck to the throne or a soldier to the army. Be steadfast in refusal; no power can resist the united inflexible will of the people." ADMIRAL NIEBQGATOFF ON TRIAL. THE SURRENDER OF HIS SHIPS. (Received October 8, 9.44 p.m.) London, October 8. "'Admiral Niebogatoff and the officers and men of his squadron are being tried by court-martial at Cronstadt for the surrender of the ships in the battle of Tsushima without fighting. Admiral Niebogatoff's squadron included the battleships Orel and Nikolai and the coast defence ships Admiral Apraxime and Admiral Sinaivin, all now included in the Japanese navy. The squadron followed the main squadron out to the East and arrived there only a few days before the advance to the Straits of Tsushima on May 27. When the battle zone had been entered at Tsushima it was observed by Admiral Roshdestvenslci that Niebogatoff's ships were not replying to the Japanese fire. There was, according to the Russian account-, a mutiny on board. . It was only when Admiral Roshdestvenski had threatened to fire into them that- Niebogatoff's ships fought. On . the following day, the Japanese, who were "in /much inferior force, came upon the! ' 'squadron under easy steam and were aston- • ished to see the white flag hoisted. It has , bean stated that the mutineers had forced the surrender of the four ships. There had ' -been several mutinies on the voyage out, . and -fourteen sailors had been hanged to- > gethor when the squadron, was lying at ,- -Madagascar". The fact that the 'sailors 'are included iii the court-martial means that r ,the mutiny allegations will come into the inquiry. ■;- ■'' AN ASSASSINATION. ; GENERAL DIES OF BLOOD POISONING. (Received October 8. 9.44 p.m.) i St. Petersburg, October 8. ? General Starynkevitch has died of ' blood poisoning, the result of the • wound caused by the bomb thrown at him in Simbirsk. ' General Starynkevitch was Governori, General of Simbirsk. The liomb was , thrown on Thursday last. The assassin escaped.

£2,300,000 EMBEZZLED. (Received October 9. 12.44 a.m.) St. Petersburg, October 8. The Russian newspaper Tovarisch asserts that embezzlement, has been discovered in the Railway Department amounting to £2,300,000. THE BLACK HUNDRED. MEMBERSHIP OF THREE MILLIONS. St. Petersburg, October 7. M. Perushkievitch, chief ,of the Black Hundred, says that the organisation now consists of three million members, who are pledged to sacrifice everything in defence of the Orthodox Church, the Tsar, and a pure Russian nationality. The Black Hundred first made its appearance in Moscow early last, year. It. is an organisation intended to retaliate with their own methods, on the socialists. It has been largely responsible for the massacre of Jews. The Black Hundred is assisted with Treasury funds. It held a meeting at Moscow in August, at which a vehemently-worded address was adopted, warning the Tsar not to grant Constitutional concessions calculated to undermine the nation's voluntary subjection to the autocracy, and declaring that a firm leader with an army to support him would still be able to restore peace ana order, though the corruption of the troops was proceeding rapidly. ~;■ THE ODESSA STRIKE, TERMINATES IN MEN'S FAVOUR, St. Petersburg, October 7. The dockers' strike at Odessa has come to an end, on the terms demanded by the men. The dockers have been on strike for some weeks. They went on strike for an increase in wages.

A DEADLY BOMB. CHARGED WITH POISON. St. Petersburg, October 7. Bombs have been seized in the students' library at Odessa. They contained Madding saturated with hydrocyanic acid,. which, would kill anyone wounded by a bomb* ; ■ ! \