MASTERED BY HIS OWN TRAPS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 12266, 29 July 1904, Page 7

MASTERED BY HIS OWN TRAPS.

A very striking proof of the Czar's bondage was recently afforded when the Czar, dispatched one of .his personal favourites, a certain M. Klopoff, into th© central provinces of Russia to report on the true condition of affairs there, about which he had previously received official information. Hki desired to test the accuracy of bureaucratic reports, but he knew that letters from M. Klopoff direct to him would inevitably be opened and suppressed if they contained statements! ,of which officialdom disapproved. In, order to avoid this espionage he ordered ~M v . Klopoff to mail his reports in smalTenvelopes of tho pattern used for private letters, not straight to the palace, but to the address in St. Petersburg of a certain General Basse. General Hesse was intrusted with the secret, and he undertook personally to carry alii tho letters rooeived from M. Klopoff to the Czar. M. Klopoff went on his mission/but out of*eighteen letters which "fe posted to General Hesse for the Czar only five reached their destination. A strong ruler would doubtless make a vigorous effort to liberate himself from this tyranny, but the Czar is essentially a weak man. The unhealthy, pale, almost grey colour of his complexion betrays his want of physical health and strength, while the' amazing inconsistencies .of his reign indicate successive surrenderors to conflicting influences. It j is characteristic of his weakness that he never strikes out a new line of thought or action on his own initiative, and that hia decision on any given question of policy is nothing more than the choicewhich of two or mor©\ courses recomj mended to foim.by.diffeivent.advjsers shall be followed. He is.ne^r a leader like the German Emperor, but. is continually I being Led by some influential man or group of men .^Success.