REVOLT IN RUSSIA

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1756, 1 November 1905, Page 54

REVOLT IN RUSSIA

ANARCHY AND MUTINY. revolutionary government FORMED. STRIKES' OF RAILWAY AND OTHER WORKERS. FAMINE THREATENED. -• MANY PERSONS KILLED AND WOUNDED. ST. PETERSBURG, October 27. Revolutionaries have met at the University .t St. Petersburg and announced the formation of a provisional Revolutionary Government at Kharkofli The Governor of Kliarkoff has been arrested. , ~ 0 , Collections were taken up at tne tot. Petersburg University to support an armed rising. The leaders of the Social Democratic party have organised the sale of arms to strikers, with twenty-five cartridges to each rifle. .It is reported that many persons have been killed at Kharkoff. Great meetings were held at the St. Petersburg University. Many officers and soldiers were present. _ Several of the former spoke fearlessly on behalf of freedom, while other speakers were violent in their denunciation of the Czar and the bureaucracy. These speeches failed to evoke protest. ‘The authorities hesitate to use force. Immense meetings of students and workmen were held at St. Petersburg. Revolutionary speeches were made, urging an armed rising. Cars filled with arms and ammunition arrived from a Finnish railway station at St. Petersburg, and were emptied before the police came to take possession. No arrests were made. Milk-carts <kt the same terminus were prevented from starting for town, the police not interfering with the strikers. jln many' quarters of St. Petersburg the people are without bread and milk. General Trepoff has ordered all provision shops to re-open, otherwise the shopkeepers are to be deported within twenty-four hours. Troops are quartered in every part of the city, and Cossacks and infantry are patrolling the streets. - Workmen’s meetings continue in different quarters.

Seven thousand workmen met at .the Nevski works.

Cossacks attacked them, wounding a hundred. . : One officer and seven Cossacks were injured by stones. A railway bridge over the Obvoduy Canal, in South St. Petersburg, was destroyed. ‘ Workmen at the new Admiralty works at St. Petersburg, where the new vessels Bayan, Paliada, and two others are under construction, have struck, likewise the men at another naval yard. THE RED FLAG IN POLAND. : STRIKERS PARADING IN THOUSANDS. MANY KILLED. ST. PETERSBURG, October 27. . Infantry volleyed at strikers at Zgierz, a number being killed and wounded. = Dragoons charging and volleying dispersed four thousand workers parading at Pabiamo9 witn red hags. Two were killed and fourteen wounded. The strikers have complete mastery of the municipality at Kursu. A patrol of infantry at 'Warsaw refused to mount guard in the streets. Coal in Lodz is selling at 20 roubles a ton. DOCKERS AND SEAMEN CEASE WORK. BRITISH AMBASSADOR’S DEPARTURE. ST. PETERSBURG, October 25. Owing to the dislocation, of traffic, caused by the railway strike. Sir Charles Hardinge, British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, who is about to start on leave of absence, was unable to leave St. Petersburg by train. He is now awaiting the arrival of a steamer. ‘Tue Times” St. Petersburg correspondent states that the inhabitants are becoming panic-stricken, fearing the downfall of the Government and the proclamation of mob rule. A later message states that plundering has commenced in St. Petersburg. The police are hurriedly directing house porters to close their doors. Editors of the St. Petersburg newspaper’s are discussing the advisability of publishing all news, and ignoring the censor. ST. PETERSBURG, October 27. • Sir Charles Hardinge, British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, who has left for London, sailed opportunely. .The strikes have since extended to dockers and seamen. Steamboat traffic to Kronstadt is suspended.

RAILWAY COMMUNICATION INTERRUPTED. PARALYSIS OF TRADE. ST. PETERSBURG, October 24. Work at Saratoff and Ekaterinoslav has been stopped. . Three thousand railway men at Saratoff demanded a representative assembly, the suffrage, and the points mentioned in Count Witte’s speech. Railway communication between St. Petersburg and Moscow has been stopped. The railway strike is spreading in many directions. Nearly all the mill and factory hands at Kharkoff and Balashoff have struck. It is believed the railway strike is a prelude to a general strike at the end of the year, intended to cause lack of food at Moscow and St. Petersburg. ST. PETERSBURG, October 25. The stoppage of the Nikolai railway deprives St. Petersburg of seventy train-loads of provisions daily. Seven thousand strikers at Moscow damaged the railway to St. Petersburg, and also aqueducts supplying a portion of Moscow with water. While a massed body of armed workmen was demonstrating at Kliarkoff it was charged by a troop of cavalry and dispersed. Disturbances, accompanied by looting, have occurred at Ekaterinoslav. Fresh reform strikes have thrown idle thirty-six thousand workers at Lodz and Pabianize, in Poland. A deputation of railway men waited on the Government, and in a threatening manner demanded universal suffrage. ST. PETERSBURG, October 26. The only railway working in Russia, is a line to Finland. Trade at the seaports is gradually being paralysed. The Odessa trains have stopped running except to Kieff. Traffic to Germany has been stopped. Tradesmen in St. Petersburg are trying to induce carters, porters, and butchers to attack the strikers. As the result of the dislocation of railway communication Warsaw is iso lated, and a meat and coal famine is threatened in that city. At the Nickolai station the strikers had an affray with a number of enginedrivers, who wished to resume work. Several people were killed during the conflict. Three thousand passengers are strikebound at the Moscow terminus. The authorities are- feeding the passengers, since they are unable to return. to their hotels. Three uncontrolled locomotives started at full steam along the rails and cbd much damage before they were wrecked. At Ekaterinoslav, in South Russia strikers seized a train going in the direction of Syzran, an-d travelled from .station to station, plundering and destroying buildings. Fifteen people were killed and twentysix injured in a conflict with troops. The strikers had erected barricades to protect themselves.

DEMANDS OF THE WORKERS. DEPUTATION TO COUNT DE W T ITTE THE UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. PROPOSED CONCESSIONS. ST. PETERSBURG, October 26. Count de Witte, who, it is stated, will shortly be invested with large powers, in receiving a deputation from the Working Men’s Congress, stipulated that it should be unofficial, as he was not empowered to accept addresses. Some of the demands made by the deputation were, he said, not realisable in any country. A constituent assembly was at present impossible, and universal suffrage gave pre-eminence to the wealthy classes, enabling the latter to influence votes. Not a cultivated man in the whole world was, he saad, in favour of universal suffrage. Count de Witte added that freedom of the press and public meetings would shortly be granted. Martial law o<n the railways would also be abolished, and he advised the cessation of the strike and the elaboration of pacific conditions. Count de Witte told the deputation that the State must repress the revolt or civil war between the people and the strikers must be proclaimed. Civil war, he said, had already commenced at Moscow and Kharkoff This probably refers to the disorders in those cities due to famine prices, which in their turn are the result of strikes. Count de Witte added: “Possibly the Government will fall, but the educated classes who are responsible for the struggle will go down in the general disaster.” The Supreme Government would have no doubtful disorderly elements. If they wanted to win any real good, the railway men must terminate the strike. A congress of railway workers having hoax'd the report of the deputation, a delegate remai'ked: “ The bureaucracy will give us nothing. We must take what we waut.” The congress finally resolved to await the result of an interview with Prince Klxilkoff, Minister of Ways and Communications.

ANOTHER VERSION. UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE AND BRIBERY. ST. PETERSBURG, October 27. Another version of Count de Witte’s reply to the deputation is that he said universal suffrage would lead to bribery and give the capitalists power. He instanced America, and added that if the famished people of Moscow and other cities were attacked by the strikers, and the Government fell in the middle of the riot, the working class would rule. His hearers remained unmoved. FORMATION OF A CABINET RECOMMENDED. IMMEDIATE LIBERAL CONCESSIONS. ST. PETERSBURG, October 27.. An Imper.al ukase lias been issued placing General Trepoff at the head of the St. Petersburg garrison. The Council of Ministers has recommended the Czar to establish a Cabinet, the Premier’s title to be President of the Council, with the right to propose conditions for Ministerial posts, except those of Foreign Affairs, War, Marine, Minister of the Court. Count de Witte has been appointed, with wide powers. He has summoned the Council, and it decided to immediately grant freedom of the press and the right of public meeting. A majority of the Ministers favoured the immediate granting o?"ci Constitution, but the minority secured Count de Witte’s appointment. It is doubtful, however, if his liberal programme will b© of any avail now. The Ministry has confirmed the Estimates intended, to improve the railway men’s conditions of service and wages. A BATTLESHIP BURNT. St. PETERSBURG, October 27. Advices from Sebastopol state that incendiaries burnt the battleship Kniaz Potemkin, on which mutineers hoisted the red flag a few months ago. NAVAL MUTINY. LONDON, October 26. The St. Petersburg correspondent of “The Times” states that a mutiny was attempted on the battleship Catherine, also at the fortress at Sebastopol. Five hundred arrests were made. REFORMS PROMISED. ST. PETERSBURG, October 25. The Government intends to grant liberty of the press, the right of association in public meeting, and to endow peasants with State lands. Apparently, it is not intended to voluntarily grant a constitution before the meeting of the Duma. It is hoped that the concessions made will allay the agitation for a constitution without the extension of the suffrage or endox-sement of the legislative character of the Duma. The indications are, however, the other way. The St. Petersburg correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” states that the Czar has resolved on what is virtually a constitutional regime, with Count Witte as president with lai'ge powers.

ANARCHY" AT RIGA. THE STRIKE MOVEMENT. FIGHTING WITH COSSACKS. ST. PETERSBURG, October 25. Anarchy prevails at Riga—the capital of the government of Livonia, and one of the chief cities of the Empire. Many bloody collisions have taken place. A railway cashier was murdei'ed in the streets and robbed of twenty-four thousand roubles. The Government spirit-shops in Riga were sacked. Further disturbances in different provinces are I’eported. At FJcaterinoslav. in South Russia, the strikers erected bai'ricades to protect themselves. The Cossacks fired on them, killing and wounding many. The Polish railwaymen have joined in the strike, and railway communication between St. Petei'sburg and Warsaw has been stopped.