" PETER THE PAINTER"

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1107, 21 April 1911, Page 5

" PETER THE PAINTER"

■ ■» A STRANGE STORY. SAID TO BE A RUSSIAN POLICE OFFICER. i By Tclceraph—Press Assoniation-Copyriirht London, April 19. 'The well-known nctor and dramatist, Mr. Laurence Irving, who has frequently befriended Russian refugees, says that some of the latter have assured him that the man "Peter the Painter," wanted in connection with the burglary at Houndsditch, a sequel to which was the killing of police and the sensational light between police and' Anarchists at the Anarchist Club, is now a Russian police officer. They further say that his mission was to compel England to close her doors against revolutionaries, and that with this object in view he sought to organise a reign of terrorism in the East End of London.

ANARCHIST ORGANISER, A foreign resident in London, who has an extensive acquaintance with the alien population from the Baltic recently gave the following information regarding 'lcter the Painter""Peter's real name," he said, "is Peter Straume. The name he most frequently used in the past ten years is Piatkow (pronounced Patton). He was born in Kiga thirty years ago, and was brought up by his uncle, learning the trade of a signwriter and scroll painter. I first met him in London eleven veare ago when he was living in • ii. , n street, Kingsland Road. I lived in the lodgings with him for two months. • 0 l° r Quietness to Queen's Buildings, Prince's Place, Gossett Street, Bethnal Green. Of very reserved manner, he was distinctly intellectual. Lettish was his native tongue, but he learned Lithuanian in London from, immigrants. He spoke a little French and quickly acquired English, which he could read perfectly and speak colloquially, hut with a distinct accent. He has always been a great organiser among the Anarchists. He often visited Paris, Belgiu.u, and Switzer- ,,™- In Paris he lived in the Rue d Ulm and in the Rue Lacepede. He was a voluminous contributor to Anarchist papers published secretly in Zurich and in Aew York. There is ■no doubt that he was one of the chief organisers of the re--1°"I ~°n 111 Russia in 1905. Ho returned to Lioau then and organised 'flying columns for the Lettish .Socialist revolutionary party, whoso chief business was to smuggle arms into Russia. He was associated with a man Strauss, who was executed at Libau in 1906. Peter is still wanted by the Russian police."

THE UNDESIRED ALIEN. M^i» a article the London "Daily Alan stated: The outrages of alien criminals now being investigated in more than one court must raise wider and deeper questions than the problem dealing with crime. Inevitably, they must fasten the attention of the nation on the whole issue of alien immigration into this country. \Vd now know that thero is in the east ot London a foreign city with 2*10,000 alien inhabitants and that in the rest ot England there are probably quite as many more of these strangers. In Manchester, Leeds, and Glasgow, not to menother cities, communities are growmg up like that of Stepney. It is not to tno point that a large majority of t' lcs ®. People arc law-abiding folk. The' question is whether we want them at all, and whether their presence in our densely populated State is not a'cause of vast economic mischief, and, indeed, ot profound danger to the future of our •• When the emigration of hale, able-bodied Lnglishinen has doubled in ten years, and their place is taken, by' the poverty-stricken non-British stream of immigrants from the Continent, wo see that what is proceeding is the substitution ot an inferior kind of man for a superior, with as the result the perpetuation of a cancer. There are communities where an urgent economic need for surplus population exists —countries such as Australia and Canada, But these will none of this class of immigrant.. J realise what the Radical sentimentalist will never learn—that, all men are not equal'and that all races are not of the same value. "Race," said Disraeli, ni one of the wisest passages ho ever wrote* is everything, and every race must fall which carelessly suft'ers its blood to become mixed." And let us remember that the pretence that these hordes of Huns ivoni without .our gates are political reiugees will not stand for. one moment, fhis is their regular plea, but when their tales are investigated, as a competent authority tells us, their statements arb almost uniformly found to be false. Wo cannot consent longer to admit these thousands of undesirables to the cruel injury of our own people, or permit indefinitely tho scum of Europe to be poured into our country to ™.v cream that lias been skimmed off by emigration. That way lies the morn[ :uid spiritual death of our race. Charity after all, begins at home.