THE GREAT MASSACRE

Otago Witness, Issue 2661, 15 March 1905, Page 32

THE GREAT MASSACRE

AN ORGY OF BLOOD AND DEATH. (From Otjk Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 27. All Europe stands aghast at a great and terrible crime. Though five days have elapsed since its commission, the horror of it remains with us still. When I despatched my last letter it was known that on the following day (Sunday) a huge deputation of the workers of St Petersburg, headed by the Rev. Father Gapon a priest of the Orthodox Russian (--Lurch, would go to the Palace in an entirely peaceful manner to entreat the Czar to grant them reasonable liberty and Administration reform. Acquaintance with the traditional methods of the Ruj*sian bureaucracy aaid grand-dukery did not encourage much hope of any satisfactory result. But, in view of the wholly peaceful character of the intended demonstration, and remembering that a special body of 400 men, the only ones to be armed, had been organised for the express purpose of guarding the Czar's person in the improbable event of an attempt being made upon his Majesty's life by a.ny unknown Anarchist or Nihilist who might have insinuated himself among these peaceful agitators without the Knowledge of themselves or their leaders, it was hoped that peace might be met with peace, and that at least the Czar would greet his loyal subjects with words of kindness and pacification, if not of hope. My New Zealand readers will have learned by cable necessarily some weeks before they can read this letter how far those moderate anticipations were realised. Last Sunday proved to be a day that must ever remain memorable in the history not only of Russia, but of Europe. It witnessed a veritable orgy of Wood and death. The miserable little half-imbecile coward who unworthily occupies the throne of Peter the

He has not belied his reputation for cruelty and violence by the manner in which he dealt with the poor working people of St. Petersburg, who went to the Winter Palace to lay their claims before his Majesty, and were cut down and slaughtered by this Grand Duke's orders. Great and Nicholas I — two merciless tyrants, it is true, but both brave as lions — took good care, to keep his own pitiful little carcase out of harm's way, and merely delegated to one of his precious relatives, that blood-stain-ed ruffian the- Grand Duke Vladimir, the congenial task of murdering in cold blood as many as possible of the peaceful and loyal unarmed working people who, with their wives and children, were endeavouring to approach the Throne with perfectly legitimate and reasonable petitions. While the Emperor skulked in abject safety in his distant stronghold, the Grand Duke Vladimir gleefully performed his agreeable task of wholesale murder, slaying aged men and youths, women and children, with a whole-hearted savagery such as has never been seen in Europe since the darkest days of Netherlands history, when the second Jfhilip of Spain was tne prototype of the second Nicholas of Russia, as vras the ferocious Alva. that of the pre-

General Trepoff. who has been appointed Governor of St. Petersburg. sent-day Vladimir, save in the latter case that Alva was also a brave soldier and a I superb commander, while Vladimir has never given token of any capacity save that of skill in human battues. He can command with rare skill the murder and mutilation of helpless women and children. He keeps at a safe distance from the Japanese army. T , It would be surplusage were I to reproduce the mere details of grim facts which have been already so well told by the Oable Agency. I need not do more in this respecb than to repeat with all brevity that the peaceful workpeople and their families were greeted with murderous volleys of shot and shell, followed up ' by cavalry charges, in which sabres and lances were freely employed with deadly effect. The white blanket of snow which overspread the City of Death was soon stained red with blood How many perished under that dread fusilade and cannonade or in those cavalry charges may never be known. The official authorities offer the modest estimate of 76 killed and 530 wounded. The lowest independent estimate is 2000 killed ajid 5000

wounded ; many other persons who were on the spot agree with ihis .estimate as the absolute minimum, while others offer plausible grouuds for multiplying it tonfold. That it was one of the most awful massacre of his own unarmed subjects ever perpetrated by the order of any tyrant is unquestionable. The terrible Sunday has already received an ineffaceable designation of horror as " Vladimir Day " — the festival of wholesale cold-blooded murder !

Hopes had been entertained by tho-so most gentle and peaceful revolutionaries that even should their mild representations be received with an order for violence, the soldiers, who were of themselves, and who were known to resent, like them, the cruel and oppressive policy of the bureaucracy, might refuse to fire on their unarmed and peaceable fellow countrymen. But the Grand Duke, to whom was entrusted plenary power, had fully realised that possibility, and had taken his measures beforehand in recognition of the likelihood. He had taken matters wholly out of the hands not only of the police, but also of the ordinary army, in which sympathy with the agitation might not improbably lurk. He had brought into St. Petersburg a strong force of Cossacks of the Don and Caucasus, who form a very efficient class of cavalry,

Leader of the strikers and hero of the moment in St. Petersburg. His influence upon tha working men is magical, for m a- remarkably short space >f time he has gathored together thousands; who are prepared to follow him in the fight for freedom and redress of^ their

wrongs. and, what is more important, who could be absolutely relied upon to execute, with glee and zest the most ferocious orders of their officers. It has been said, indeed, that a Cossack of the Don would infinitely rather kill a Russian citizen than not, and would enjo3 r nothing better than a free hand _at wholesale massacre in a Russian town. And the Cossacks were virtually given as free a hand as even they could desire. They simply mowed down the helpless men, women, and children like grass. The people fell dead in heaps on the snow, and many others — less fortunate perhaps — were left lingering in hideous mutilation, desperately wounded, and exposed to the bitter cold without aid or relief.

Nothing was sacred to those bloodthirsty rough-riders. Neither age nor youth nor

Who was associated with Father Gapon in leading the demonstrators, and was killed at the Narva Gate. sex prove the slightest protection. Even babes were slaughtered as ruthlessly as were their seniors in that fearful shambles. Mere schoolgirls shared the same fate. The superstitious awe which it had been hoped would be inspired by the sacred Ikon and orucifix carried by Father Gapon and his associate, Father Sergius, proved as impotent as any sense of humanity to stay the hands of the savage instruments of Duke Vladimir. Both were riddled with bullets. So was a portrait of the Czar, which also was carried in the procession as a token of loyalty. No ; the word had gone forth. " Slay and spare not," and it was obeyed with remorseless thoroughness. As night closed in, and the word of death became superseded, because in the prevalent gloom, due to the absence of artificial light, the skyers oould no longer see their victims, the Grand Duke Vladimir sat down to dinner. He was in high spirits. He dined generously and well — so well that on rising from the table he applauded himself loudly for his efficient and successful stamping out of the revolution, and actually danced a grand ducal "cake-walk" in honour of his success ! This is declared to be an absolute and literal fact ! At the same moment his dead and wounded victims we>re lying scattered over the snow only a few yards awa3 r , crimsoning it with their lifeblood or moaning in their lingering agony. And Pobiedonostzeff, the virtual head of the Russian Church, the Procurator of ti e Holy Synod, what of him? How did he regard the day's work? Well, he applauded it with enthusiasm, and bestowed his apostolic blessing upon the performance. He declared that "it made him feel 20 years younger," and ..that the only misfortune was t-hat that day's work of blood had been so long delayed. "It ought to ha\e been done 20 years ago !" said this pioua representative of the Prince of Peace md Mercy of God of Love ! It is difficult to determine which picture is the more utterly loathsome an.d revolting of the two — the Grand Duke who had ordered the massacre, celebrating it in a " Cake Walk " dance, or the Most Holy Procurator giving his benediction to the murderer and his crew, lamenting only that the murders had not fry£B £erjeetra.t§d_ g£ X^SXS^fiarliej^ _ajid m-

daring that ho felt wholly cheered s"d rejuvenated by the happy event ! As for the Czar himsell, in who^e name all those unimaginable horrors had been enacted, the reports of his demeanour are various and discrepant. Even his locality is shrouded in the profoundest mystery. One story was that he and his family had embarked precipitately in a yacht-, and fled to Denmark. Another was that he had made a headlong flight to Gatschine, and intended taking refuge at Livadia. A rhird version placed him still at Tsarkoe Selo. At the time I write nobody knows which of these is the true story, if any one of them be true.

One strange thing about the persons concerned in this historic crime :s the apparent inconsistency between their personal ?ppearance and their true characters. The Grand Duke Vladimir, judging by what is declared to" be a good portrait of him, is a strikingly handsome man, with a particularly pleasant and benevolent expression, as different as possible in aspect and countenance from what one would have pictured ps a. typical tyrant. If his portrait and those of the noble and devoted priests Gapon and Sergius wero presented anonymously, I fancy that one of the latter would at once be picked out as having less attraction of physiognomy. In the case of the latest " villain" of the terrible drama, Trepoff, the newly-appoinied despot of St. Petersburg, he has nothing in his person and aspect to mark him as a cruel and pitiless tyrant. Yet so notorious is he in this character that the mere fact of his appointment the day before yesterday as Governor-general of St. Petersb'irjj caused every heart to sink and even hope to fail. For such an appointment was instantly recognised as indicating the ruthless determination of the Russian authorities to persevere in the policy of relentless repression and massacre. One writer says of him : " General Trepoff is the worst type cf a tyrant, and is notorious for the bmral measures he adopted for the stippression of the student demonstrations on November 18 and 19, while he was Chief of Police at Moscow. It was his needlessly cruel acti-jn on those occasions which resulted in an attempt on his life by a youth named Poltoratsky, who was a student of the Commercial College at Moscow. Within c.ne week in 1902 there were three attempts upon General Trepoff' s life. The first of these, on March 31, was by the woman Allart. a governess, who placed the muzzle of a pistol against the general's breast and pulled the trigger. However, the weapon misfired. Fi'ir days later a man, armed with a dagger, tried to force his way to the presence of General Trepoff, with the avowed intention of killing him. But he was unsuccessful in hi 3 attempt, and was arrested. Two days later, while TrepofF was driving in bis carriage, a young man, supposed to be a rusticated student, sprang tipon the step of the vehicle and tried to stab him, but l=e only succeeded in wounding a policeman."' Another writer says that General TrepofF's record is not exactly a splendid one. It is generally believed that he owes his advancement to the fact that he is the illegitimate son of a very high personage, and his appointment as chief of police in Moscow to the fact .that his predecesc-or was dismissed for the disaster which occurred at the Czar's Coronation in 1895, due, as everybody in Russia knows, to the incompetence of the Grand Duke Sergius. Elsewheire I quote some remarkable incidents in the career of this man to whom has been given despotic powers of life and death over person and pi-operty as regards every inhabitant of St. Petersburg. His appointment at the presemt moment is indeed an event of evil omen.

This is the man to whom, has been entrusted, by the so-called " Littl-Q Father"' of th© Russian peop'e, tho absolutely despotic powers over the lives and limbs and personal property of all the residents in St. Ptersburg. He was not long in asserting himself. A journalist asked him if, in his opinion, the revolt would soon end. "That is no matter of opinion," replied Trepoff, "it is a matter of certain I knowledge. I ICN'OW it must and will scion end." As his first step has bee-n to iniprison every educated person vriho could by any possibility be regarded, or who was in the least degree likely 1o become, a leader among the rovolters, while his second move was to issue imperative orders for the prompt slaughter of anybody who attempted anything in the nature of a demonstration, however peaceful, it is scarcely surprising that he was soon able _to announce with some degree of plausibility that the revolt in St. Petersburg 1-ad been ! crushed. It may be so, but to most outi siders the situation more closely resembles I the condition of a boiler which is being i pressed to tenfold ffcs usual strain and wh'"obis on the verge of .i disastrous explosion. Meanwhile the movement appears to have spread far and wide. On this head it is impossible to speak with any degree, of confidence because the wildest tomances are being freely circtilated on both sides, and one cannot tell whom or what to believe. But it seems certain that revolutionary demonstrations have- begun on a large scale, both in Poland and in Finland, and that there have been particularly 'brmidable outbreaks in Moscow, Riga, and the great arsenal and stores at the lastt jxamed fortress being alleged to have been "burnt by 8000 Imperial sailors who have risen in mutiny. A still more sinister rumour cornea from the Far East to the effect that the spirit of revolt las shown itself on a large scale in Kourapatkin's army at Mukden. I cannot pretend to say what truth there may be in any of these reports. Nobody in this country knows; everything is the merest guesswork.

The dangerous condition of the Wills bridge, between Makarora and the West Coast — the bridge on the Haast Pass track which is, or should be, used by all persons crossing by this route to the coast, — has been brought under our notice. The bridge was, as a matter of fact, condemned about 12 months ago, and during the past summer, when the traffic through the Haast Pass was heavier than it has ever been before, it was absolutely unsafe to use it. The sum of £150 was voted for expenditure on the bridge in the Public Works Estimates last year, but not a penny of the money seems to have been spent, and there is a grave risk now that the vote may be allowed to lapse-. As the track provides settlers at Jackson's Bay with their most direct route to Otago, the necessity for the bestowal by the Government of some atten.tipn. to the work should be appareg£ t