THE RUSSIAN . UPHEAVAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2688, 20 September 1905, Page 19

THE RUSSIAN . UPHEAVAL.

REVOLUTIONARIES AT WORK. A GENERAL RISING URGED. THE SITUATION AT BAKU. SERIOUS SITUATION AT BATOUM.

THE BAKU OIL INDUSTRY. ST. PETERSBURG, September 12. General Gori, Viceroy of the Caucasus, refused to allow the Armenian communities to organise militia for self-defence under Russian officers. Thousands of Tartar horsemen are crossing the Perso-Russian frontier and joining the insurgents in the Caucasus. A holy war has been proclaimed. The Armenians were massacred without regard to age or sex. and mutilated children were thrown to -the dogs. The survivors were forced to embrace Islamism. The Tartars desecrated the churches at Baku, stole the sacred vessels, and riddled with bullets the ikon of the" Virgin. Prince Tsisiaroff, a Caucasian landed proprietor, has been assassinated. September 13. In a fight between Socialists and Cossacks at Tiflis 30 of the former were killed and 50 wounded. Tartars at Minking, in the Caucasus, massacred 300 Armenians. There is no truce between the Tartars and the Armenians at Baku, but there is less fighting. The Armenians are making a desperate defence. One man defended his house at Baku for three hours, his wife and son, loading his guns. He killed 47 and ■wounded a great many before he was overpowered. Shipments of arms for Finland are believed to have been proceeding for several months past. September 14. The oil producers at Baku inform the Government that owing to the inability of the police to afford protection they have commenced paying notorious bandits an enormous monthly ransom for the saiety of life and property on the oilfields. Blackmail' and robbery began after the appropriation from the inhabitants of the ownership of the petroliferous lands, which reverted to the State. Eight hundred delegates from all the towns of Finland met at Helsingfors to discuss the political situation. A polite order to disperse was disregarded, so the troops were summoned and dispersed the gathering with fixed bayonets. The police at Warsaw arrested Kowalazyk (the Government astronomer) and his family owing to the discovery at his residence of a store of revolvers, ammunition, and daggers. The authorities at Jakobstad seized 5000 rifles among the inhabitants of the district. The English companies at Baku were forced, by revolutionary proclamations and threats of death, to relinquish all attempts to continue work. The revolutionary committees from various centres met at Warsaw. The authorities are now urgently preparing to meet fresh outbursts. Extraordinary precautions are being taken to protect the Czar. Further reinforcements have been sent to Baku. The Governor of Elisabetpol requests that troops be sent as the situation is more menacing. A revolutionary proclamation issued at Tiflis urges a general rising. The vessel wrecked off Jacobstacl, in the Gulf of Bothnia, prove to be the John Grafton, of London. September 15. Tie Russian Government has issued a

secret circular to the Governors of pro- | vinces and the mayors of towns -which Le- J trays the greatest distrust of the Zemstvos, ! declaring that if once they are done away with the disorders in the country will stop. It directs the authorities to closely watch these demagogues, and to arrest them on the slightest pretext. They are also ordered to prevent the distribution of all publications calculated to seduce any from their allegiance to the autocracy. September 17. The Czar has ordered the immediate concentration of the troops on the oilfields to ensui'e order, and also the formation of a police force from recruited reservists to protect the works. The Czar pencilled on the margin of the report dealing with the attempt to explode a bomb under the carriage of the Governor of Tiwastehus that if such things continued a state of war would be proclaimed in Finland. The situation at Batoum suggests a massacre similar to that at Baku. A brigade of infantrj- and artillery is proceeding thither. The Czar, replying to a memorial from the oil-well owners, has ordered an early conference of the representatives of the principal firms, together with the chief officials, who are to report on the cause of and circumstances connected with the disturbances. September 18. The Czar and Czarina, with their children, have started on a cruise in Finnish waters. Thousands of unemployed persons at The steamer John Graft on' s cargo included a quantity of bombs. Baku are to be repatriated. LONDON, September 15. The steamer John Grafton was transferred to her new owners at Flushing, where a mixed foreign crew replaced her English crew. Later on the steamer Fullerton was seen off Sarke transferring to the. John Grafton a cargo of large cases similar to those. found at Jacobstad. September 17. Two French women were arrested at Odessa for smuggling revolutionary literature. Great stocks of literary material were seized aboard the Messageries Maritimes steamer Guadina. BERLIN, September 12. The Voseische Zeitung's Constantinople correspondent states that the Porte is about to present to Russia a note protesting against the massacres of Armenians and Mohammedans in the vicinity of Turkey (in Asia). COPENHAGEN", September 16. The newspaper Politiken states that the captain of the steamer John Grafton was a brother of the assassin of General Bodrikoff, late Governor of Finland. WASHINGTON, September 13. M. De Witte promised a wealthy HeT>rew deputation in New York that he would do his utmost to give the Jews i full constitutional rights.