RUSSIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16252, 24 April 1917, Page 8

RUSSIA.

.- LIGHT ON THE REVOLUTION. f EJIPRESS'B MISTAKEN PART. ("Tho Times.") I'ETROGRAD, April 22. Tho "Times'' correspondent states: — Irrefutable evidence is forthcoming regarding the Revolution. It is to the effect that reactionaries, led by the Empress and M. Protopopoff. Minister of the Interior, were sent to promote disturbances, and that a state of famine was deliberately engineered in- Petrograd-and-other' cities, which tho reactionaries were prepared to turn to account as a pretext for a. peacefavourable to Germany. M. Protopopoff instructed a perfect organisation to create disturbances. The weakness of the Czar's hold on the people was a most astonishing feature o ithe Revolution. He was nothing to them, hardly even m name. Nowhere was regret heard at the abdication. Tlie Empress was the most interesting personality of tlie old regime. "While tlie Czar was thoroughly antiGerman and pro-Ally tlie Empress was anti-Ally and pro-German. Sue believed her mission was to maintain an absolute monarchy for her husband and son. She was intensely mystical. She believed that God nad chosen Russia as the .instrument for great miracles, hence the sway which the repulsive Rasputin exercised over her. Perhaps she was right. Russia has been chosen aj the scene of great miracles, though not precisely of the kind she imagined. The correspondent adds that the influence of the Duma on the Provisional Govemnn-nt is daily growing. r lht> bulk of the workmen and soldiers :>re> patriots. They know that Germany must he bsateii i>£ their liberties are to be assured. t LABOUR AIMS. (Australian and N.Z. Coble Assn.) The "Labour Gazette" points ont that extremists are the best friends of the reactionaries. The Congress of Soldiers' and Workers-' delegates support the Government, i'l its demand for tlie establishment o? Arbitration Courts and safeguards for the labour of women and children, and alsc for the abolition of contract labour, and for an eight-hour day, ■ except for munition workers. RELEASED RUSSIANS. COPENHAGEN, April 2i\ Owing to ■ transport • difficulties, 100,000 leleased Russian- political pusouerv, hnve not yet been deported fiom Sibcna