INTERNAL RUSSIA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1717, 25 January 1905, Page 20

INTERNAL RUSSIA.

PARIS, January 16. The Paris newspaper “Nation” considers the efforts of the Russian bureaucracy at conciliation are only an elaborate process of make-believe. ST. PETERSBURG, January 17. General Trepoff, ex-chief of police in Moscow, who was fired at by' a student while escorting the Grand Duke Sergius to the railway station, was not harmed, though a bullet passed through his cloak. The student sought to avenge the expulsion of his brother from Moscow, owing to the riots. ST. PETERSBURG, January 17. Twelve thousand ironworkers at Putiloff’s works in St. Petersburg struck, owing to the dismissal of five unionists. Thirty thousand others have struck in sympathy. They declare they ijave no revolutionary objects. ST. PETERSBURG, January 17.

The Czar lias increased the tax on telegrams one-fourth, to provide funds for tne Red Cross organisation. Owing to distrust of the present administration of funds private subsci iptions have almost ceased. ST. PETERSBURG, January 17. A number of eminent citizens of St. Petersburg intend to present an address to the Czar, representing the uselessness of the Government continuing the war, which they declare it is unable to conduct sucoessfullv*

Representative citizens of the capital and many of the principal towns are signing the address. ST. PETERSBURG, January 17. The Russian police, as a means of suppressing seditious propaganda, have seized all the typewriters in the towns of Romny and Poltava. The inhabitants of Kertoh and Kherson, in the South, held demonstrations in defiance of the authorities. ST. PETERSBURG, January 18. The University of Moscow has been closed • A bomb penetrated the residence of the Governor of Smolensk. A bomb was also filed at the ponce quarters at Poshekhonie, in the Province of Yaroslav. LONDON, January 18. Reuter’s Agency reports that attacks were made on General Trepoff on three successive days. He is reported to have been assassinated while journeying to St. Petersburg. General Trepoff was chiefly responsible for the brutalities practised by the police in quelling the disturbances in Moscow. THE OZAR UNDER FIRE. A SENSATIONAL OCCURRENCE.

ST. PETERSBURG, January 20The Czar and Czarina, the Dowager Empress, and a brilliant company were participating in the ceremony of Blessing the Waters of the Neva. When the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg (Bishop Antonius) was uttering the benediction, the guns of the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul saluted. Simultaneously something crashed through an upper window of the Hall of St. Nicholas in the Winter Palace. The damage was at first attributed to the concussion of the guns, but it was soon found that an iron bullet an inch in diameter had penetrated the window. The Imperial party retired to the Palace, the crowd showing great exciteLater, it was officially explained that a charge of shrapnel, instead of a saluting charge, had been fired from a gun belonging to one of the batteries stationed near the Bourse. Some bullets struck the facade of the Palace, breaking four windows and wounding a policeman. The 17th Battery of the First Horse Artillery, the most aristocratic coips m the army, fired the shot. The Battery was practising on luesday last, and apparently a loaded shell was inadvertently left in the gun. It is popularly considered to be> highly suspicious that this gun happened to be pointing in the direction of the pavilion where the ceremony was proceeding. ST. PETERSBURG, January 20. Sinister rumours are abroad that the incident was the outcome of a military conspiracy. The whole battery were implicated, and have been arrested. The Court officials admit they were warned that something untoward might happen. The Court is -startled, because the regiment was officered entirely by noblemen. The Czar exhibited marked coolness. He held a diplomatic reception afterwards. LONDON, January 20. The Russian Embassy in London states that it has unofficially heard that an agitator fired a shot in the direction of the palace from across the river, hoping to create a demonstraSome accounts allege that missiles either killed or wounded one officer and some soldiers. GENERAL TREPOFF STILL ALIVE. ST. PETERSBURG, January 19. General Trepoff, ex-Chief of Polio© at Moscow, who was reported to have been assassinated, has arrived here.