AMAZING STORY OF RASPUTIN.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16153, 6 March 1918, Page 8

AMAZING STORY OF RASPUTIN.

* THE "BLACK MONK OF KUSSIA." (BY THE COUNTESS BADZIWILL.) New Zealand Rights Specially Secured by "The Press." CHAPTER VIII. (Concluded.) ACCORDED CHURCH BURIAL. The question most discussed in connexion with the death of this sinister adventurer Rasputin was whether he was to be allowed a Christian burial. He had been, after all, but a. sectarian, a heretic, a follower of a croed which was not only reproved by the Orthodox Church, but also prosecuted by the law of the land. The Synod was callcd upon to pronounce itself on the subject -when the advice of the Metropolitan Pitirim of Petrograd, one of the personal friends of Rasputin, at last prevailed, and he was buried with the rights of Holy Church. Some of the ladies who had been the first cause of his having obtained the importance which grew to be attached to his strange figuro did not wait, however, for the permission of the ecclesiastical authorities, and a few hours , after the body had been discovered Madame W., one of the most hysterical among tho many ■women followers of Rasputin, caused solemn bo celebrated in her apartments for the repose of his soul. She went to fetch his two daughtors, girls of sixteen and fourteen years of age, who were living with him at Petrograd, taking them to her house, and declaring that she would henceforward consider and treat them as her own children.

|. ( But apart from this small group of blind admirers, no one regretted him, not even the crew of parasites that had ! surrounded him and exploited him. By one 'of those strange anomalies, such as can only take place in Russia, Manussewitsch-Maniuloff, who had been the indirect cause of his death, was appointed, together with other secret police agents, to investigate tho details connected with the murder of his former friend and patron. Of course, the inquosfc led to nothing. No one had any wish to see it end otherwise than in oblivion. Every political party in Russia ( was agreed in thinking that with the disappearance of this dangerous man the dynasty had won a battle just as important for tho safety of its future existence as would have been a victory on the battlefield against a foreign foe. The names of the murderers, though pronounced nowhere, were blessed by all sincere Russian patriots, who cried out when they hoard that Rasputin was no more, "Thank God that this adventurer is dead, and long live the Czar!" RUSSIA'S ENEMIES STILIi ALIVE. I Unfortunately, the slaying of RasI plltin did not destroy the persons who had used him. It did not put an end to the many abuses which had brought Russia to the sad state of chaos in which it found itself at'tho moment of its great trial. The man himself was but an ensign, and the loss of an ensign does not mean that the regiment that carried it about has shared its fate. When judging the va6t Empire of the Czars one generally forgets that up to the other day, when the most terrible of national crises brought it nearer to its Western friends, it was but the embryo of a modern State, and that its culture was confined to a narrow circle. The members of this circle were, after all, not even able to lead the Empire into the regular path of progress, because they had neither' the experience nor the energy to do so. Nor wero they able to break through the circle of bureaucracy which has been the bane of my Fatherland ever since the days of Peter the Great, and even before his time. The war in a certain sense may prove for Russia a mercy in disguise, if it brings along with it the blessing of a constitutional government and does away with the terror that this word has inspired until now in certain people, who only looked _at it from the anti-revolution-ary point of view. ENGLAND, RUSSIA'S GREAT HOPE. The peril in which Russia found herself gave energy even to those to whom that quality had hitherto been unknown, and it was felt everywhere that, together with the Fatherland, tho Czar ought to bo saved from a danger of which, perhaps, lie did not himself realise tho real importance. Rasputin, and especially Rasputin's followers, Jiad worked as hard as they could to make Russia's Allies, and cspocialjy England, unpopular with the Russian nation. He paid with his life tor the attempt, and one can only rejoice that such was the case. As things stand at present, it is toward Great Britain that Russia must look tor its salvation. hlcl tnat En gb'sh influence had been so dominant in Russia in the past as it is at present, aud as it is to bo hoped it will remain in the future, we sboujd not have seen occur in Pet+imCldents liko those connected with tho career of Rasputin. Wo should not have witnessed all these perpetual changes of Ministers, over which w S re J° ic , Gd with such evident relish. We should not have heard people defy the authority of the Czar as unfortunately has been the case. We monarchists, who have been brought up i n the old traditions of Joyauy to bygone days, havo often been accused by this crew of adventurers of harbouring revolutionary ideas. Thev •T? .reproached us with the spirit of criticism that has sometimes induced and prompted u s to speak out what wo thought and to lay blame where blame was due; to criticise whero criticism was almost a national necessity. Time shall prove whether we havo been mistaken. It seems to me, however that and re spe'ct for individual liberty and individual opinions become mor 6 and moro familiar to Russians and penetrate into the Russian mind, the public will acknowlodge that we have not been so very wrong when we have raised our voices against the importance which individuals such as Rasputin have been allowed to take in our society and in our governmental circles, and against this corrupt system of administration which, thanks to its crawling, flattering propensities, licked his feet in the idea that- by doing so they were pleasing the higher authorities, who most of the time knew nothing about tho developments which this intrigue was gradually assuming. Russia has still (Copyright, 1917, by the Public Ledger Company, U.S.A.J (Australasian Copyright by the Sunday Timee Newspaper Co., Ltd., Sydney.)

something Oriental about her, and in some respects she resembles the Greek empire which fell under the blows dealt at it by the power of Islam. It needs new lifo and new blood to flow in its veins. It requires the support of this strong earnest British civilisation, whic-lf'is. perhaps, the most beautiful the world has ever known. ... 1 have always been accused of being too pro-English in mv ideas and opmions If licins pro- means xnc wish' to fee my'coiintrv freed from the abuses the existence of 'which has prevented her from developing herself on the road of a prepress embodied in the respect of the individual, together with the institutions that rule as Great Britain has known for-somanj centuries, then I will »villinoy - it. lam pro-English. I fee* £ire that all good Russians share . ings. We have had enough of German Kulture and ol Gerrna trigues. They it is that have brought mv beloved Fatherland to the brink ot ruin, a ruin which only her closer umon with her brave Allies can prevent. Tue whole sad incident of Rasputm sr _ e and fall has been the result of German interference, and it would never have assumed the proportions to whicn ™ rose if the German Press had not exaggerated it and German spies spoken about it, not only abroad, but also m Russia itself. (The End.)