OUR MAIL BUDGET.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9148, 22 June 1891, Page 3

OUR MAIL BUDGET.

EXPULSION OF RUSSIAN JEWS.

The Telegraph's St. Petersburg correspondent says he has " excellent authority for stating thai

ihe Government has under consideration a inosl

i important project for the solution of the Jewish question, which,if adopted.'may please or shod* but will certainly astonish the civilised worid." The Jews are arriving in thousands, from various parts of Russia, iv the districts set apart for them, many dying on the route, because forwarded in company with criminals for weeks and months together. Tbe misery in the Jewish Pale of Settlement is indescribable. During the last holidays a self-denying ordinance was issued to abstain even from fish and devote the mouey thus economised to relieve tha pressing needs of the new arrivals, The harsh treatment of their poorer brethren has produced something very like a panic among the higher classes of Jewish merchants in Moscow, who live in daily expectation of an extension of the rigour 3of the Government to themselves. Large numbers of Jews lately residing in Moscow on sufferance only, and without a legal right, have now beeu, to use the Russian phrase, " cleared out," and despatched iv batches, under military escort, in railway carriages with locked doors to the Jewish Pale. Tho consequences of this summary proceeding are very far reaching. Of the three chief periods for commercial settlements of accounta — namely, Nijni Fair, Christmas, and Easter, tbe last, now upon us, i 3 certaiuly the second in importance, and merchants are everywhere complaining of tho difficulties experienced in collecting debts, owing to the enforced disappearance of tho Jewish agents, sub-agents, and subtcr-sub-agenis, who form the plinth of the commercial column in R«33ia. Business is thin largely disorganised. Hundreds of protested bills are coming daily before the notice of the judge of the Commercial Court, who has telegraphed to the Minister of Finance for instructions. FURNITURE AND CREDITORS ABANDONED. The lower classes of Jews, who had no legal right of residence in Moscow, were cleared out so promptly tbat, in many cases, they have been compelled to abandon their furniture and bulkier belongings undisposed of; while Moscow dealers with the Jewish quarters are now ruefully writing off their bad debts, amounting iv the aggregate to considerably over a million roubles, on accouut of theso summarily-ejected defaults, whose money bas always hitherto been safe. Bankruptcy as the result threatens many dealers. Tbe Russian law recognises three classes of bankrupts—the unfortunate, the negligent, and the fraudulent. The last are summarily dealt with by exile to Siberia. The second class have their estate administered for the benefit of the creditors; while the " unfortunate " bankrupt is permitted to make his own terms, and is generally' pitied. The common experience is that from n bankrupt of this class creditors receive very little indeed—practically ouly what tho bankrupt thinks fit to pay; and it is in this class exclusively that all debtors whose insolvency is due to tho recent clearingout process are naturally placed. WEALTHY MERCHANTS LEAVING- RUSSIA, The synagogue in St. Petersburg has been sold for 700,000 roubles (the Moscow correspondent of the Standard fays), and the Moscow synagogue, a new building, which was but recently completed, after many vexatious hindrances from the authorities, and has never been opened, is now offered for salo, and will probably bo acquired by the Tartars as tbeir Mosque. Several of the wealthiest Jews, members of tho First Guild of Merchants, aud enjoying the right of residence here, are having Russia altogether, and the majority have determined to quit Moscow. At a meeting of Jews held here, it has been decided that payments shall be made first to employe?, and secondly to non-Russian creditors ; what is left the Russians may take and welcome. HOW THE EXPULSIONS WERE CARRIED OUT. That the authorities should have issued their edict on the very eye of the Russian Easter, tbe great festival of' their church, when vast crowds of the Orthodox, filled with religious enthusiasm capable of degenerating into militant fanaticism on the slightest provocation, are assembled round every church, and, moreover, just at tho time of the Jewish Passover —this (an Englishman now in Moscow said to the Times correspondent) is tha most spitefully cruel and daDgerous piece of antiSemitic legislation ever devised even in Russia. On tbe first day cf the Passover tbe police and gendarmes began to visit the Jews' houses in the middle of the night to examine passports. Those furnished with the police st3mp permitting them to reside in Moscow were compelled to sign a paper promising that tbey would quit the city i and districts in three days, ■What seems to me a great shame is that the ; rioh Jewish bankers, who hnve always been aceu-ed by the Russians of doing the greatest I amount of financial and economical harm to the i State, are not touched by the new law, aud do 1 not appear to do what tho7 might to help their i unfortunate co-religionir-ts. By order of General i Groeszer, Prefect of Poiico, the constabulary ] and detective agents are keenly on tho watch for ] al! Jews escaping from Moscow. j Two Russian bishops having praised the Russian Jews in their public speeches, the clergy have been warned to do so no more. Four books attempting to prove that tba Jews are capable of being good cinzsns have been forbidden tbis i week. One of them, entitled "A Word to tbo I Culprit," contains ouly letters of Count Tolstoi ' and other Russian c.Ubritics. It is felt on all I sides that the present situaoion cannot last. 1 THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, At Marlborough street Police Court on May ' 5, Edward Pinter, 50, described as a merchant, ' of Down street, Piccadilly, was charged before ' Mr Hannay with attempting to obtain the sum of £40 000 from Mr Edward William Streetrr, a. ! jeweller, carrying on business in New Bond ' street, with intent to defraud. Superintendent ' Shore and Chief-iuspsotora Swanson and Froest watched tho case on behalf of the Scotland Yard authorities. The prosecutor deposed that he first met the prisoner on the 27th ult. at un ] hotel ia Dover street, On the 25th ult, ho , jteeeived a, jeticr from Qom\i Kearus',. wl|Q

The Daily Chronicle of yesterday (M ly 14) says:—"A private letter from H.M.S. Undaunted, at Jaffa, dsted May 4, and received in Loudon yesterday, brings the news of a splendid feat performed by the vessel the command of which Lord Charles Bcresford has had for about 16 months. Jaffa, the port of Jerusalem, has an evil reputation among marine.?. Vessels of any burthen have to lie off tbe roads, and the coasting steamers aro often obliged to carry on their passengers to Beyroufc or Port Said according a3 they are northward or southward bound. In these roads arrived and anchored oa April 23, tbe French cruiser Seiguelay. On Sunday, the 26th, it cama on to blow hard from tbe westward. The Seiguelay bad no steam up, and tho gale iucrcasing, first one anchor parted, then the other, and ths gala drove tbe vessel ashore on a sandbank, _bm_ half a mile from the land. The catastrophe, as it appeared to be, took place at nightfall, and the Seignelay's captain, evidently fearing the worst, lowered a' boat, which, before it reached the chore, lost two oars and its rudder. Messrs Cook's chief boatman, Suleiman, who great!} distinguished himself by saving life from r Russian steamer three months before, plunged into the surf with his brothers and brought the boat Bnd men safely ashore. Tho Arab then swam off to the Seiguelay with a letter offering assisstauce, and got back to tho shore at half an hour after midnight, having been in the water some two and aha'.f hours. Ec reported that there was no "hoio" in tha ship, so tbat there wero hopes of saving her. But iv the morning; she seemed so firmly embedded that the attempt was thought desperate. So tho brave Suleiman swam off again through the heavy sea and brought ashore, hanging round his neck, tho captain's wife. In the course of the 27th tho Austrian Lloyd steamer tri.d to render help, but was obliged to abandon the attempt. Then Captain Lord Charles Beresford appeared on the 6c.no iv the Undaunted, accompanied by the gunboat Melita, Commander King-Hail. They fouod that tbe heavy sea had driven the Seiguelay into shallow watr-r; and the Melita, which is of 970 tons and 1200-hcrs3 power, could not get nearer than 300 yds from the Frenchman, while the Undaunted, which is of 5600 tons and SSOO-kors_ power, could not got further in thau 450yd3 outside the Melita. In other words, the Undaunted was about half a milo from the Seignelay. Howrever, says the letter, ' with determined work night &nd day, a steel wire hawser, 15 shackles of chain cable, and tho help of God, we fioaie i her iv 52 hours. The French and English worked like Trojans together.' ".