A RUSSIAN SCANDAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3278, 10 January 1917, Page 14

A RUSSIAN SCANDAL.

MURDER OF "GREGORY TUB RAKE." (By Cable.) The death of the monk Rasputin is defl. nitely announced. He is reported to have been murdered by Prince lousoupoif, who is related to the Imperial Family, having married a daughter of the Grand Duke Alexander Miehaelouvitch. The prince is frail and weakly, and his friends say that only an overpowering motive could have induced him to kill Rasputin. The Daily Chronicle's Petrograd corre" Bpondent thus describes the assassination of Rasputin: Two aristocrats motored to Rasputin's residence and took him to Prince Yousoupoft's house, from which the police heard shots and cries. The body was placed in a car and driven towards the mouth of the Neva. '1 he two persons concerned are of high rank, and one is well known in London society.

Tho Times correspondent at Petrograd reports: The police traced a blood-stained track from Prince Yousoupoff's palace to a newly-cut ice-hole in the Neva, and divers recovered the body of Rasputin. The domestics employed at the palace informed the police that the blood was duo to the shooting of a mad dog, and they exhibited the body of the animal. Prince Yousoupofr left Petrograd for hia Crimean estates after Rasputin's disappearance, and returned on Monday.

Tho Paris Journal points out, that tho Germans used Rasputin as a tool, and that the Germanophile Sturges clung to Ministerial office through him, "whilst the Grand Duke Nicholas suffered.

Official: The body of Rasputin, tho monk who is alleged to have been murdered by Prince Yousoupoff. was found near tho Petrovsky bridge, at the month of the Neva.' The Daily Chronicle's Petrograd correspondent reporls that, despite censorship, it has been revealed that the monk Rasputin was conveyed to Prince Yousoupoff's house and condemned to death. He was given a revolver to shoot himself, but instead he fired at the man who gave him the revolver, but missed and killed a wolfhound. Hia accusers then disarmed and shot the monk.

It is reported that some minor figures in the case have been arrested. A member of the Duma, who was concerned in tho affair has already left Petrograd. and it is reported that h" has reached the front. Genera] Kurloff. confidential adviser td General Frotojx>poff, is conducting investigations. A section of (lie Russian press states thai) legal proceedings in the TJasoutin cases will shortly be discontinued, on the grounds that the assailants acted in self-defence. [Grigory Rasputin ("Gregory the Rnke") first appeared! Fit Petrograd in 1911. when ho was about 35 vea'-s of a<ie. TT T > to that time ho had been one of the "rolicrious guides" found in large numbers in almost every Pussinn village. Pome of these men are simple hermits, who are permitted by the Church to expound elementary doctrine to the villagers; others, of whom Rasputin was one. are mere charlatans. Rasputin, who came of humble peasant stock, mado his way. thanks to a charm of manner which has been described as hvpnotio. Certainly he sprang almost instantaneously into favour in aristocratic circles in Petro-g>-ad. and his intrigues against certain high dignitaries in the Church drew uron him many attacks in the Huma and th« press. But- Rasputin's influence invariably prevailed' ; and. while his friends were promoted in various capacities, his enemies—among them so importnnt n personage as tho Arohbishon Antony of Volhynin—were cither disgraced or superseded. Tn July. IPI4. a woman who =a : 'l sh" wished to nvengo one of the "monk's" oaYI victims, him

H-V./-T) lw> was vicit-.'n"- Ills native vilTasro of Polcrovsfci. in Tobolsk, but the wound did not prove falnl/|