POLITICAL CRISIS IN RUSSIA.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1104, 18 April 1911, Page 5

POLITICAL CRISIS IN RUSSIA.

THE ZEMSTVO BILL. DISSOLUTION FORESHADOWED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyrisrlit St, Petersburg, April IG. M. Stolypin, the Prime Minister, speaking in the Council of the Empire, in answer to interpellations regarding his action in utilising article 87 of the fundauientnl laws to promulgate the Zemstvo Bill, said the article was intended to be used only in a grave crisis. He accepted the responsibility. The Duma, he added, had no power to interpellate against the ) administrative acts. The Council, by (19 votes to 53, decided that M. Stolypin's declaration did not affect the interpellation. Owing to the absence of a necessary majority the question of M. Stolypin's illegal procedure cannot be submitted for the Tsar's decision. St, Petersburg, April 16. The press here considers that the divergence of opinion between the Council of the Empire and the Government amounts to an impasse, and dissolutions of the Council and the Duma are foreshadowed. CAUSE OF THE CRISIS. THE TSAR'S PREROGATIVE. Towards the end of March the sittings o fboth Houses—the Council oi Empire and the Duma—were suspended to enable the Tsar, under Paragraph 87 of the fundamental laws, to exercise his prerogative to pass the Zemstvo 13ill i'or the Western Provinces, subject to further amendment by the Legislature. At a meeting of the Octobrists (Progressive Conservatives), M. Guchkofi announced that, in consequence of tho Tsar's action, he had tendered his resignation as President of the-Duma. All the members of the pflrty threaten to resign their seats as a protest. A Bill has been before the Duma altering the franchise in Poland and the western districts in which Poles predominate. It is said the object of the Bill is practically to disfranchise the Poles and transfer the franchise from them to the small Russian minority. When the Tsar, on August 19, 1905, issued a manifesto announcing the formation of a representative body called the Duma "to take a constant and active part- in the elaboration of laws," and on October 30, 1905, signed a constitution by which it was intended that the people, through their elected representatives, should exercise real influence over legislation and participate in the supervision of the legality of the acts of tho authorities appointed by the Emperor, he in no >vay divested himself of his autocracy. He delegates certain powers to the Council of tho Duma which can be revoked at will, and in the event of these bodii-s failing to act, or act in time, .the Tsar acts through his Ministers as if -these bodies did not exist. M. Guchkoff, the President of the Duma, is the leader of the Octobrists or Progressive Conservatives, who number 130, and carry with them the Moderate Right (70) and Right and Nationalists (50); total 270 votes. What tho Duma may develop into is at present an unknown quantity; but the Government is. trying to introduce English Conservatism in contradistinction to the Bureaucratic reactionaries of the. old regime. M. Guchkoff fought: for the Boers in the Sonth African war and we.s on tho Rod Cross staff in the Manchuiinn campaign. He made a most favourablo impression on the Duma's visit, to London. He is the chief promoter of an AngloRussian financial alliance, and is the movinc spirit of the Droposed Russo-Perso-Iridian railway. He is considered by Germans prettv well as pro-English as M. Stolypin. the Premier, and M. Iswolsky, tho Russian Ambassador at Paris.