AMAZING STORY OF RASPUTIN.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16143, 22 February 1918, Page 9

AMAZING STORY OF RASPUTIN.

THE "BLACK MOSK OF RUSSIA." by THE COUNTESS RADZrWILL.) I JCew Zealand Rights Specially Secured 1 by "The Press." CHAPTER Vl—(Continued). I PLAYING THE SPY.

In regard to important matters, Rasputin did not disdain occasionally plsying the epy. I remember a curiopo instance of which, during tho first five or six -weeks of the war, greatly amused those who became aware of it. The whole incident is most characteristic of tho business methods then in vogue in Russia.

"When war was dcclarcd the military administration proceeded to requisition numerous things which it required in the "way of war materia!. Among others were sand Bags for tho trenches. Now there happened to be a Jew in Petrograd -who had about 50,000 of them. He did not care to declare them, as he ought to have done, knowing Tery well that ho ivas not in a position to obtain from the Commissariat Department tho prico -which he wanted. Ho therefore sold them to another Jew, who gavo liim a certain Bum on account, stipulating that he would take the delivery of the goods in the course of the next -week or so. But in the meanwhile prices went down, and the unlucky buyer found that ho had indeed made about as bad a bargain as possible. "While ho -was thus lamenting over his bad luck, ho happened to meet one of the secretaries of Baspntin, to -whom he related his misfortune.

'Is this troubling ycru ?" exclaimed the latter. <; This is nothing, and we 6hall soon set it all right." He took him to the "Prophet," where the trio came to the following arrangement. The Jew was to go forthwith to tho Commissariat Department and dcclaro that ho had so many thousand eandfcags to soil. Rasputin was to speak in his favour, and to do his best to obtain the highest price possible. Rasputin's secretary proceeded then to donounco the first Jew, who was the real owner of tho bags, as having neglected to declarc their existence. Immediately a requisition was mado in the lattcr's store, whero tho bags, of course, were found. Then the Jew •who had given an account on them interfered, and said that they were his property, and that he had fulfilled all the formalities required by tho law in regard to them. Ho forthwith ' proceeded to tako possession of the bags, laughing in the laco of their real owner, whom he doiicd to claim tho balance still due to him, well knowing that the unfortunate victim could do nothing, hecau'se if Jio had tried to complain he would inevitably have been condemned to pay a heavy fine and to be imprisoned. Them again there was a storv of railway trucks in which tho ''Prophet" also was mixed up in somo unaccountable way. Somo Jews, protected no one knows to this day by whom or in what way, had obtained some contracts from the Government for different goods ,which wcro to be -delivered to the army, together with tho necessary number of railway trucks to carry them to the front. They immediately proceeded to sell these contracts at a fair price, though not an exaggerated one, to other people, but with the clause that these other people were to take upon themselves the care of forwarding the goods to their destination. And thev kept for their own use and benefit the trucks which had been allotted to them, hiring them afterwards to whoever wanted to nave them for as much money as they could get. Ono Jew, a. certain Bernstem, thus obtained control over more •than 500 trucks, out of which he drew during six months an income amounting to something like 250,000 roubles a nionlh. And this occurred while overvoody was complaining of, the impossibility of forwarding anything anvjvhere, owing to the lota! lack of railwav matoTir.L It js. related that in thfs litfclo too, Rasputin -was mixed up, ? , s'th°lit him the military con-tract?-which the heroes of the anecdote

<CopjTijht, 1917, by the Public Ledger ... Company, U.S.A.) (Ali»tjala«ian Copyright by the Sunday 10148 Newspaper Co., Ltd., Sydney.)

I have .just related obtained would never have been. s rantec^GOING "RATHER TOO FAR.* These stories, scandalous though they irere, are well known. There tvero others of ivhich it is hardly possibles to hpeak. These wore whispered from ear to ear witlt honor and disgust, but they did not harm in the leajt the impostor who was nuistiiny his carcer of -wickedness, dweit, and crime. As time went on he got more aud more intolent-, more and more overbearing, so that at lastsome of his former protectors found that he was going rather too far, and ho was no longer received at Tz;irskce iSelo with the same kindness that had been shown to him previously. He did not care for this, nor did those with whom he was working care either. They were all uniirupulous, daring people, determined to make hay while the sun was shining, and careless as to -vvhtit others might think of them. Count AVitte, who saw further and understood better than most of the public the hopeless muddle into which tne administration had fallen, feit sure that sooner or later the country would demand an explanation for tho many mistakes and errors which had been committed, and that a change in the Government wns bound to take place. He fully meant this change to affect hi* own prospects: in so far that it would put him again at the head of affairs, and he "was helping Rasputin as well as he could to discredit the Cabinet then in power, and to show it up as being thoroughly incapable of managing the country at this moment of grave crisis. THE MASSAY ED OFF INCIDENT. It was about time that the Mussayeclolf incident 1 took place, about wiiich. sucn a lot lias beeu written, and wiiich docierves a passing mention in tJiis record. -Niassayedolf was a colonel who nad already given some reasons to be talked-about lor of a more or less grave nature. Uenerai Konnenkampi, ween lio had received tho command of the i\ovno Army Corps, had energetically protested against ais appointment on lns_ staff, but headquarters ignored his representations, and maintained the coloncl in his functions. After tho disaster of Tannenberg and the loss of two Russian army corps m tho swamps of the JMazurian region, it was discovered that some spying of a grav 0 nature had been going 011, and that the principal spy was Coloncl Massayodoff, who had Kept the enemy informed of the movements of tho Russian troops. He was tried and condemned to death, which sentence was duly executed. Together with him several individuals compromised in the same affair, mostly Jews connected with questions of army purveyance, were also hanged. Among these last was a man called Friedmann, who had been one of the parasites who were perpetually crowding around\Rasputin. The latter, however, when asked to interfere in his favour had refused to do so, but whether this was due to tho desire to get rid of a compromising accomplice or the dread of being mixed up himself in a dangerous story, it is difficult to say or to guess. But others tallied, if tho "Prophet" himself remained silent, and soon, it began to be whispered that ho was also, if not exactly, a Gorman agent, at least a partisan of a separate peace with Germany. > There certainly exists indications that such was the case. In spite of tho str«ig character upon which Rasputin prided himself, it is hardly possible that he could have escaped the influence of'the people who were constantly hanging about him, and who were all partial to Germany. This was due to the fact that they hoped, if the latter Power conquered the Russians, to obtain from tho German Government substantial rewards for their fidelity, in the shape of some kind of army contracts, for the time that the I Prussian troops remained in occupation of some Russian provinces. It is quite remarkable that while the nation in general was all for the continuation of the. war, and would have considered it a shame to listen to pcace proposals without the consent of its Allies, commercial afld industrial people "were always talking about peace to whomever would listen. And Rasputin had now more ito do with that clans of individuals than with the nation. (To be continued to-morrow.)