THE RUSSIAN UPHEAVAL.

Otago Witness, Volume 23, Issue 2684, 23 August 1905, Page 19

THE RUSSIAN UPHEAVAL.

A POLICY OF REPRESSION. ? THE DUMA SCHEME FALLS FLAT, l _— — — [ EXCITEMENT IN POLAND. ' A FREE PRESS AND FREE SPEECH WANTED. ! ST. PETERSBURG, August 15. The Governor of Warsaw has ordered . M. Sienkicwicz, the famous novelist and author of "Quo Vadis.,"' to be detained , in his domicile for signing a public protest against the Russilication of Polish schools. August 16. Anti-Jewish riots have taken place at Billostok. The authorities are passive, \ and there is much bloodshed. Forty Jews ' were buried yesterday, thousands following the bodies to the cemetery. \ The peasants Li the Courland district [ sacked 22 municipal buildings and de- ' stroyed the documents and conscription ; lists. They took all the money belonging ' to the State. The peasants in Lavonia have invaded many estates and killed three land-owners. The court -martial now sitting at Odessa sentenced two young men and a girl to ; 20 and 13 years' penal servitude- for keeping explosives. . j August 17. 1 The Moscow Congress of the Peasants' Union, which has 200 members in all parts of Russia, has adopted resolutions demanding universal suffrage for both sexes, a regular Parliament with the initiation of legislation, controlling the national finances, and supervising the administration, the utilisation of the monastery lands for the purposes of the peasant proprietorship, compulsory free elementary education, non-compulsory religious instruction, and the secularisation of the schools. The whole movement is described as a universal upheaval beyond the control of the authorities. Admirals Kruger and Vishnevetsky have been placed on the retired list, and Captain Gonzewitch, of the Georgi Pobiedonosetz, has been retired with the rank of rear-admiral. Captain Baranowsky, of the Pront, has been retired with the rank of captain. The origin of the Bilostok bloodshed following on the military repression de- t monstration was a bomb thrown at twosoldiers from a Jewish house. A detach- ! ment of soldiers entered the house and massacred every inmate. ! August 18. The Moscow garrison, encamped at Hodinskoe, Moscow, for summer training, Jias been ordered to remain there. Owing 1 to the dangerous ferment among the regiments, the artillery has been trained on certain regiments whose allegiance is suspected. The crews of the warships at Libau are on the verge of mutiny. An outbreak is certain if the Odessa mutineers are executed. An officer of one of the Riga warships ordered to be in readiness declares that his own men are disaffected. The Czar, reverting to former conditions, has restored to the Armenians their church property and reopened their schools. The ukase has caused an excellent impression in Armenian circles. " j August 19. A holiday was observed in Russia to-day on the occasion of the issue of a ukase establishing a national Duma, or State Council. The ukase establishes a representative Duma for the preliminary study and discussion of legislative proposals, which will be submitted to the Czar by the existing State Council. The Czar reserves power to limit the peiiod of the Duma to live years or shorter, and to determine the length of each session. Members are immune from arrest for debt, and are free to express opinions. They have no responsibility to electors. They receive a payment of ten roubles per day and travelling expenses. Ministers and chiefs of departments are ineligible as members, but may attend the Duma and make explanations. The proceedings will be officially reported. Differences between the Duma and Council will be referred to a mixed commission. The franchise is a co-ordi-

nation of that for existing elective instl* tutions. August 20. Directly the Czar's manifesto was published the C4overnor of Moscow announced that the privileges and meetings of the Zenistvos given under a former ukase were abolished, and that further discussion on constitutional questions would not be allowed. A supplementary decree appointed a commissioner to consider the procedure at the elections to the Duma in Poland, Siberia, and the Caucasus. August 21. The mounted police dispersed several j thousand revolutionaries, who were rioting i at Kishinieff after the publication of the Czar's manifesto. Wholesale arrests were made at Lodz. There is great excitement at Warsaw, and troops occupy several streets. A Socialist meeting was dispersed. There are no rejoicings over the Duma scheme. The Novoe Vremya and the Slovo are the only newspapers which eulogise it. The Liberal organs demand the freedom of the press and freedom of speech, and contend that the high rental qualification deprives all the urban proletariat and a great portion of the intellectuals of the franchise. LONDON, August 19. English newspapers consider the ukase maintains the Czar's will unimpared.