TURMOIL IN RUSSIA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1747, 30 August 1905, Page 19

TURMOIL IN RUSSIA.

THE REPRESENTATION SCHEME.

ELECTORAL ORGANISATION FORBIDDEN. ST. PETERSBURG, August 22. The decision to withhold the franchise under the Representative Council from the majority of professional, men —who were the pioneers of reformI—is 1 —is widely criticised. Many Conservatives as well as Liberals resent the prominence given to peasants in the scheme of representation.

A general strike has commenced in Poland as a protest against insufficiency of national representation. Some of the railways are at a standstill. ST. PETERSBURG, August 23. While the Moscow municipality .was sitting privately in a small hall drafting resolutions to he submitted to the Czar, two hundred of the public in a gallery in the large Council Hall cheered fiery speeches which were delivered amongst ,themselves. The speakers denounced the Czar’s manifesto concerning the Duma project. The speeches were accompanied by cries of “Down with autocracy,” and. “Long live the constituent Assembly,” and “The Marseillaise” was sung. Some of the speakers recommended armed rebellion. Many people quitted the building as a mark of disapproval when M. Galitzin entered and read the manifesto, which was received in dead silence. It was resolved at M. Galitzin’s instance, with only one dissentient, “ That the Czar’s noble purpose could be realised only under conditions guaranteeing freedom of speech, of the press, of meeting, and of union, and the inviolability of the person.” The resolution also recommended an amendment to the Duma scheme ; in order to restore tranquillity, and added, “ The Duma should be based on universal suffrage with full legislative right.” ST. PETERSBURG, August 24., There are 5000 persons who have votes with rental qualification under the Duma scheme in St. Petersburg, 12,000 in Moscow, and 7000 in Odessa. The indignation manifested in Odessa is intense, because, with half a million inhabitants, the town is allowed only one deputy, the same as Kirsk, with 50,000 inhabitants. The organisation of an electoral campaign has everywhere been forbidden. Tile Provincial Governors are imprisoning and exiling many leading Liberal voters. M'f

Officials announce that they have been entrusted with electoral arrangements. The Zemstvos and municipalities have not been allowed to cooperate.

' ST. PETERSBURG, August 25. A report submitted to the Vladimir Provincial Zemstvos Commission bo b“ e effect that the scheme for the establishment of a Duma did not fulfil any or the desires of the Zemstvos —was adopted amid cheers. . .. A resolution was earned similar tk> that recently passed by the Moscow municipality. r The resolution, which the censor has refused to allow to bo published, declares • “That the Czar’s noble purpose can be realised only under conditions guaranteeing freedom of speech, of the press, of meeting, and of union, and the inviolability of the person.” The resolution also recommends an amendment to the Duma scheme in order to restore tranquillity, and adds: “The Duma should be based on universal suffrage with full legislative right.” A similar resolution has also been passed by the St. Petersburg municipality. PARIS, August 24. Advices from Moscow state _ that twenty-one officers who met to discuss the Duma scheme were arrested. FACTORY-WORKERS SHOT BY COSSACKS. ST. PETERSBURG, August 22. A force of Cossacks arrested the ringleaders of the recent disturbances at Riga. A mob of factory-workers stormed the police station where the prisoners had been lodged. ' They were fired on by Cossacks, fifty being killed and many wounded. Many of the Dettish population of Courland are practically in open revolt, and martial law has been proclaimed. DISTRESS IN THE PROVINCES. ST. PETERSBURG, August 22. The harvest has proved a failure in twenty-three provinces in Russia. Great distress prevails, and a peasant rising is feared. Hunger and disease are rampant in many of the towns owing to the strikes. A thousand Kuben Cossacks and Mussulmans have migrated to Turkey. In one instance three hundred threw down their carbines while on parade, saying it was no part of their duties to act as police, as they had already done too much dirty work. ~ A band of Socialists, while trying to enter Warsaw, had a fierce encounter with* Cossacks. Ten Socialists were killed and several wounded. CONTINUATION OF DISTURBANCES ST. PETERSBURG, August 24. Grave disturbances have taken place in various parts of Courland. Yesterday incendiarism, pillage, and murders were reported. The Czar’s portraits were destroyed in publio buildings, and farmers’ houses were fired. 1 Crowds of ragged peasants from the famine-stricken districts are arriving at Moscow. Wholesale arrests have been made at Warsaw, including leading Polish Socialists. ST. PETERSBURG, August 25. Rioters in twenty-six communes in the Courland district wrecked Government buildings, and burned lists of conscripts prepared for purpose® of mobilisation. A large forest and a farm homestead were also set ablaze. The fires caused damages estimated at millions of roubles. The majority of the land-owners have taken refuge in Germany and Sweden. Four employers at Warsaw were murdered in a street in one night. Colonel Meyer, Chief of Police, does not shoot revolutionists like his predecessor did, hut arrests hundreds nightly. All the prisons andjiseveral barracks are filled with prisoners, who are suffering untold hardships from overcrowding, hunger, and brutal treatment. LONDON, August 23. . Tie Warsaw correspondent of the “ Daily Express ” reports that large bodies of Socialist® are marching in procession through the streets denouncing the Czar’s manifesto distributing proclamations. Fatal collisions have occurred between the rioters and the soldiers. The “ Morning Post ” reports that riots and demonstrations are taking place in Finland, Courland (one of the Baltic provinces), Reval (a seaport of Finland), Kieff, Rost off (a town in the south of Russia),* and Tiflis (Transcaucasia). ARREST OF REFORMERS. ST. PETERSBURG, August 22. The police have imprisoned M. Milukoff, Professor of Russian History at St. Petersburg University, Professor Dennisevitch, and fifteen other reformers who were suspected of preparing to visit the Liberal candidates at the National Duma elections. The reason given by the police for making the arrest® is that a meeting was being arranged to condemn the Imperial manifesto. EXCITEMENT IN FINLAND. ST. PETERSBURG, August 23. Much excitement prevails at Helsingft>re (capital of Finland) owing to the removal in a torpedo-boat of two Rus- / paa police who acted as agents provo-

catcurs in the Jan'-ary disorder®. They were tried by the Finnish Courts, but were allowed to stay in a military hospital for three weeks on the ground of illness. They have now been removed to a place outside of Finnish jurisdiction. FAILURE OF A LOAN. LONDON, August 23. Reuter’s Agency reports that only 20,000 roubles have been applied for of the new Russian internal loan of 200,000,000 roubles. SOLDIERS AS RAILWAY MEN. DISASTER IN SIBERIA. ST. PETERSBURG, August 24. Soldiers are driving the trains on the Vistula railway. It is reported that at Irkutsk a coupling broke and wrecked a military train. Thirty-two were killed and forty-eight injured.