RUSSIA.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8796, 25 April 1907, Page 2

RUSSIA.

Horrible Atrocities

•Per Press' Association—Copyright. St. Peteejutjbg, April 24,

Gregns, chief culprit connected with the Riga .horrors, has been promoted to a high post in the political police at St. Petersburg j M. Stolypin has ordered the ] governors in the Jewish zones .to issue a proclamation warning the people against pogroms on May sth, and announcing that the troops will vigorously suppress any disturbance. ' The Douina Commission's report, read yesterday, described the mediaeval tortures inflicted on political prisoners and suspects in order to extract confession. It declared that the Governor of Riga, with the knowledge of the administrative authorities, tho Public Prosecutor, and the Colonel of the Gendarmerie, empowered a special committee to kill accused persons without trial. Some of the description's were unprinatble. Finger nails, toe nails and hair were torn out; prisoners flailed with indiarubber sticks until the flesh was hanging in strips and salt ru,bbed in; a man died and a bencli or plank Avas laid across his body and two policemen s'ee-sawed thereon until the back was broken. After the tortures the maimed wretches were generally shot near Rigajprisou. The Government reply to the interoellatiou admitted ;-the truth of most of the statements, but the allegations against the Public Prosecutor's department were exaggerated. Tho reply added that M. Stolypin had ordered an enquiry and he prosecution of guilty persons.