THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, JULY 31, 1906. RUSSIA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 5421, 31 July 1906, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, JULY 31, 1906. RUSSIA.

It is remarkable the perlinacy with whfoh men who have power stick to it. A King of England resisted the people's demand till 'he drove, them, to rebellion, and they cut oil" 'his head. Tho same thing happened in France, and many other countries, a iid Russia is on a fair way. t 0 prove thai history repeats, itself. The Czar has dissolved tho Duma, and has resolved to put down the incipient rebellion by the force of Maxim guns and cold steel. It is apparent that his action has met with the disapproval of thu whole world, as in France, his ally, the credit of Russia has fallen below anything hitherto known. This indicates that not only have other countries disapproved of the action of tin* Czar, but have also lost confidence in His financial stability. They are so afraid that she will not be able to pay her debts that her securities are at a tremendous discount. There is nothing very surprising in this. The prolonged war with Japan brought about by the very people who are oppressing her now, depleted the Russian Treasury, and her subsequent, history is not conducive to .replenish 11. Instead of going lo work to develop trade, and endeavor to reorganise and' reconstruct her finances, Russia has ever since the war been plunged in Ihthroes of an internecine warfare, which ■has been-eating out her vitals and reducing her to misery and ruin. The taxes are crushing .the tillers of the soil. A large number of the population have been shot down, while a great deal of properly has been destroyed, and the food supply of the. people burned to ashes. The soldiers | have been shooting down the people like rabbits in the towns, the country people driven to hunger and desperation, have been burning and destroying and looting in :tlie rural districts. Thus the country has been, and slill ' is, in a state of civil war. Industrial pursuits have been neglected, and now 'her Parliament, which alone could restore peace, has been dissolved after a short session of about ten weeks. It is therefore no wonder that': the money-lenders have lost 'confidence in the ability of Russia to meet her liability, ■notwithstanding the burn unity of her -territorial possession, and her vast resources.

As for the Czar himself, he has had opportunities of conciliating the people which fewinonnrchs placed in ■similar positions have had. According to Russian law, the subjects of the Czar have always hud Ihe right to present to him petitions respecting their gric vanees. In conformity • with that law Father , Gapon headed an enormous number of workers, and went to the Imperial Palace to see the Cz a r mid present their petition, but instead of seeing them, he set the army to mow them down, and several.of them were killed and wounded. Had the Czar on that occasion come out amongst the people, and attended lo their grievances, a great deal of bloodshed would - have -been avoided, but in • heeded them not, and this led to "tli ■ proclamation of a .strike in whieh 1,000,000- were engaged. Mutiny in the army and navy followed, ami mi the morning of March 3rd, 1905, HiCzar issued a manifesto denouncin ■; .these disturbances, but so serious had matters grown that before night he issued a second manifesto, in which he promised the people that he would give them, a Parliament. The disturbances continued, and General Trepolf, who was noted far his cruelty, was appointed to quell them, but though he was unsparing in his slaughter of the people, matters grew worse, til! again on August I9th another manifesto promised a parliament in less equivocal language. But apparently the people had no faith in the Czar's promises, for the strikes, disorders an 1 destruction of properly grew (ill on the :30th of October last he issued a third manifesto, in which he promised to grant the population the imnuilable foundation of civic liberty, based on real involability of the person and the freedom of 'conscience, speech, union, and association. Here he. gives freedom of speech, conscience and righli of holding meetings, and goes on in the third article to Say as follows : "lII.—To establish as an immutable rule that no law can come IntoToree without the approval of the State Duma." Many other things were promised in the same manifesto, but ih>[joints which we have quoted show that these promises were immutable that they could not be changed. The strikes eased down on receiving such assurances as these, and in due course the Duma was elected unil met, but il found it had practically very little power, and that the Czar would not receive their addresses in reply. fl'liey) were warned that they "were not to interfere in any way with fundamental a laws ;■ money was spent without any 'authority, and in fact their position was reduced to a nullity. . Now fundamental laws are those hitherto enforced by the Czar's proclamation. There has been a body Called the Legislative Committee in existence in Russia, but they were the Czar's rivatures, and whatever they and the Czar agreed upon was fundamental law. The fact that the Duma c o uld not ainend these, and their control of money was disregarded, showed to the Duma that their position wa« a farce. This exasperated them to such a de. gree that there was practically only one party in the Duma- The Ministers were not elected members ; they were men appointed by the Czar, but they had all the powers and the Parliament had none. The Duma insisted on Ministers being selected by the representatives of the people, and this the Czar refused, and now there is no Duma.

We regret this, as we hoped that the Duma would lead (he people ;-.th a t the army would join them, and that thus freedom would be won for the people. T'lie whole question now is what will the army do V If Hie army takes the side of the people there is a hope for 'Russia, if it does not. we see nothing before i( but bloodshed repression, famine and misery.