The Daily News TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1905. DISTRESS IN RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7708, 10 January 1905, Page 2

The Daily News TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1905. DISTRESS IN RUSSIA.

. « Whilst history is making in the "Far I East," and the Russo-Japanese j struggle continues on its unequal way, events equally, if not morel ■ ar-rcaching in their effects, important are proceeding in European Russia. The cables almost daily tell of | 9 rioting and official barbarities, of I r distress and distrust among the poo- ! pie, and of the efforts of a few do- j vo'tcd patriots endeavouring to ob- j tain some modification of government , systems so that the popular burdens ! may be lightened. An insight into the awful condition of the lower or- ■ dors of the Russian population may' be . gleaned by reading between the I lines of the brief cable messages, | which have doubtless had more harrowing details excised by the implacable pencil of the official censor, at)d viewing them in the light of recent news to hand by mail. In this it is interesting, though saddening, to note an amount published in the Anglo-Russian—a newspaper whose avowed policy is to spread abroad, as an independent organ free from any political party or religious denomination, ail accurate knowledge of internal affairs aftd events in Russia, and their bearing oil international policy, and to voice Russian public opinion condemned to death in that country itself. From all parts of Russia, it is stated, infor- , mation comes of tlw most acute distress of the population everywhere, filling one with real despair us to what is to happen as the sei veie Russian winter sets in for many months. Even the Novoo Vremya t gives .most painful descriptions of increasing starvation, and the ineviI table epidemics which follow in its I wake. Writing to that journal in October, M. Menchikoff Quoted an instance *in which he had just been shown a piece of "bread"- hailing from the district of Krestsi, Government of Novgorod. It looked just like hardened black mud, and was formed of the plant atriplex 5 with an admixture of the chaff of rye 1 of the kind that pigs are fed upon in Western Russia. "I looked on it," , he proceeds, "and said to myself : 'ls it possible that our Heavenly Father could give such bread to ll ! is . children } No, this bread must come from the devil. This ancient Novgorod people who were so redoubt- ( able in the eyes of the Swedes, Germans and I inns, and ate genuine wheat and rye bread before the foundation of the Rjuwi-rr Empire ; this people have j.ow, in the twentieth century to eat this horrible bread ■! . What a truly terrible course of evolution.' Novgorod, it must be rememwas a prosperous republic until 1478, when it was subjugated by the first Russian Autocrat, lv Q n _ 111., since when it has sunk into poverty, until its bread is no longer believed to have been given by the Giver of all gifts. In Moscow, the chief business centre of Russia, with 1251 factories employing about 3 20,000 workmen, and producing goods to the value of about 38 millions i sterling, trade is reported to have . fallen off by about 30 to 35 per cent,, and the employment of labour by 20 per cent. In St< Petersburg there are now 30,000 grown-up men without jvork or mtsnns, while in - i, ho , "! di : stl ' ial districts of Russian 1 oland the number of men out of work exceeds 00,000. Farmers and peasants are suffering from the comstagnation of the corn trade, the Government having requisitioned lor war purposes all available means of transport. The official Gazette of Vitebsk (300 miles south-west of St. Petersburg) tells of widespread famine in several districts. "Many . families are living exclusively on pol tatoes and wild berries ! In the province of Kherson (on the lllack Sea) 0000 families have been left in dire distress owing to their heads having been sent to the front as , reservists. The local Zemstvo is besieged with applications for help, which is, however, not available! , In the province of Bessarabia the laimne is so widespread that the I local village communities are. no . longer able to support their school teachers, and the Zomstvos are petitioning the Central Government I lor subsidies, which will searcelv be foithcomiiig l . In Warsaw manufao turers and merchants complain of . the almost total stoppage u t business, and the Jewish comnnmilv alone have to deal with 5000 of j " lelr co-religionists, .who have been thrown out of work and are without , an;' means of subsistence. Similar reports come practically from all towns, and villages affected in one way or another by the general crisis. a",. J "'it-tors are sLiil worse. All traffic except that demanded by • military contingencies has been stopped on the trans-Siberian railway, ajxl the numerous settlers on both .sides of the line awl in nioro remote districts are deprived of supplies which have hitherto arrived by this distributive agency. But, not only is ordinary business at a standstill ; even medical help is totally • absent, tind in some places the population is last dying out from famine and epidemics. Tlw Vostochnoo Obozneno (Eastern Review) tells that practically the whole population of the settlement of Tchnoui • inhabited by Jakouts, has disappear! Ed after un attack o-l" smallpox during which no nuadical help whatever was available. Incidents without number could be quoted of general distress which make one .shudder with horror at the immediate future of the Hussiaii people. V e L the Czar is resolved tu sacrifice the "last man and the last rouble" for what he calls tile glory of Russia, for the annexation of Manchuria, which, as the reform advocates say, nobody . wanted before and no one wants now, 7'ruiy, it is urged, the ' time has arrived when something should bedcjne by the combined nations otitic civilized world to pi-event an ii« repressive potentate from exterminating Ills' own people b.v war, fnni-i inc and epidemics. The internal condition of Russia and the utter enslavement of her people can no longer remain a matter of indifference to other nations, who have Ho •boar the consequences and effects of the arbitrary Muscovite despotism.