GROWING BOLDNESS OF THE RUSSIAN PRESS. :

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11445, 30 December 1904, Page 4

GROWING BOLDNESS OF THE RUSSIAN PRESS. :

OpHk references tothe French devolution 1 - in torms of admiration, made by & *«?»«•, ' paper of standing within the empiVe" of the Tsar, leave many & European; contemporary, in a state' of blank amazement. The theory of a censor caught napping if exploded by a boldnesff in the prm oi. St. Petersburg, anel Moscow which the. .stato of the law reno'e'rs prodigious. The traditional Romanoff principle that journalist* must never g.Ct ; out, of ' hand is - openly flouted by the Novoe Yremyk itself-. * Tliif ' St. Petersburg daily, perhaps the most; influential newspaper in all "Russia, 'would seem to have, broken completely^ with its .own past. Reactiojiariea..of a 'Muscovite tyj>e will-- extract no comfort from its, columns now. "The Novpe-Yremya -isi ti»efui guide to the naiure of prevailing tendencies," declares the Manchester Guardian, "and if the Novoe "Vremya demands freedom, it, niay Tbe fairly assumed that • the . Government intends, to- .concede reform." ,_ v.ith all the zeal v of the- apostate, the St. Petersburg daily, which once suspected that government by the people was'-in-vented by the , devil,- now, tells us that freedom of the .piesa is the , rock of a nation's safety. . The > Russian newspaper, it complains, 1 is "a- closed door," through the keyhole of which may be caught fragmentary phrases ,and the vague ,4nuymur ,of real life." To the Russian newspaper, it ventures to <Bay, in defiance 'of' press regulations, is applicable Talleyrand's definition of language as an uisfcru'ment for »<ne concealment of -wj^afc- i» thought. The infection of this ferment has spread as far as the Grazhdanin . (St.Petersburg), organ^ of- Prince lf«stchersky, who holds fast to that which is autocratic His pap£r makes bold to affirm:— "lt «»« necessary tp \!ppint, out' the^ . ways ;«nd methods of acqijiring spiritual, economic, and personal freedom. The Tsar him done this. The. realisation of the ideas laid down depend^- npion hia-toH.", ,%e;«»i but wait patiently. * i- • . But- ttte- i4«a* face the future boldly.^ The extension; of religious toleration Bpells freedom, of ponscience. The strengthening , of the\ local administration inewte the death of buieaucracy. The abolition of mutruaT reefloßaibility in the peasant communes, together with the opportunity accorded jto.individuals to withdraw from the commune; is a great step towards the emancipation , of the peasaut. Finally the emphasis -upon the legal responsibility of the local administration should open the door, to rational individual freedom' and personal j security. Tho Novoe' Vrcmya prints elaboI rate arguments to prove that the •Tsar'a references to local government imply; a,d«- ! termination to give, wide applicatioii to the representative and. popular principle in provincial, district, and county administration. It* argues, that education, justice, finance, and taxation must necessarily be entrusted to local bodies composed -of delegates of the several orders and i classes of society/if. tfcle-Tsar's gniding principles' are to bY carried' out! _ ;^ -• £*_