POLICE LAW IN RUSSAIA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1716, 22 November 1887, Page 3

POLICE LAW IN RUSSAIA

An Odessa correspondent writes : — The RasßlaDß, as is generally known, have no saoh institution as our English ooroner's court, ba*; m case of fatal accidents, suicides, etc., Inquiries by an especially appointed commissary of police are held on the spot. Many of the extraordinary aeoounte whloh occasionally fiad their way into the foreign press of the proceedings m fatal caeei wbero the onmmiaeary of police is absent are not generally credited, and yet they are ooly too lamentably trne. For instance tho body of an Intended suicide may ba discovered by the neighbors before life is extinct, but if the commissary of police bo not iuaiantly available tho neighbors will not, or rather dare not out It down and save the life of the unfortunate person. Here is a case m point, Illustrative of the effects of the working of this ill-advised and olumßlly constructed Russian by-law Yesterday, at the Bolshol Fontane, a pretty marine suburb of Odessa two little girls, aiaters aged seven and | eleven were bathing unattended. Thebeaoh a little way out is teacherous, owing to shifting sandholea. The poor ohlldren I are supposed to have got into one of them. They were both swimmers but became terrified. Their position was observed by a gentleman fishing at some distance, who hastened to save them, and he succeeded m bringing them to shore. The demented mother, however, who resided not more then 300 paces from tbe beaoh, was not allowed to convey her ohlldren home, where propar restoratives oould have been applied. The poor little things expired on the scorching sand, under a burning sun, and it was there, covered with a sheet, that I s*w their dead bodies still waiting th.9 arrival of the commissary of police from Odessa.' There Is not a doubt that the lives of these little victims might have been saved had they been Immediately oarrled home, and the ordinary means of restoration applied. It may naturally be asked, why did not the spectators interfere and carry off the poor children 1 Such aotlon might certainly bring before the Government the cruel result of this stupid regulation, but one mast not resist the police. We are governed by and for the police m Russia.