SECRET SOCIETIES IN EUROPE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1099, 18 May 1883, Page 4

SECRET SOCIETIES IN EUROPE.

TUB BLACK HAND, 'While we are awaiting the results •of the enquiry now proceeding in Dublin, attention is again directed to the growth of secret societies on the ■continent. So dangerous is the 'undercurrent of revolution that there ds once more talk of international •action between the Governments to •suppress it. In Spain, where arrests 'continue to be made, the Socialist mgitatiou has prompted outrages which •closely resemble those with which we 'have become only too familiar in Ireland. The movement appears to be the strongest in Andalusia. The Band ofthe Black Hand,” recently discovered, is now Said to number 49,910 members —that is, nearly -50,000 —peasantSfaud artisans, shopkeepers, and small landdowners. But its influence extends ■over a wide 'area, the organisation being divided inlo 190 distinct federations and 800 kcal sections. It is alleged that in many villages and «nal] towns almost every householder is a Socialist. We must be prepared Ifor some exaggerations. Meanwhile, the motion of the Republican deputies ibr an enquiry as to the arrests that have been made has been rejected by a large majority, “The Black Hand,” if rising some of the weapons of the Land League, avows a more comprehensive object. It declares against all proiptroperty, and accepts fall means ■pas legitimate in its warfare The correspondence seized shows that the society was in active communication with the International and other revolutionary groups abroad. The authorities are ■said to have discovered that the supreme inspiration awd/astructions, 'with a code of organisation and rules, ■came from an anarchist named Geter, in Geneva. The documents and proclamations seized are headed with the words, “Association of Working -Men, Section of Agricultural,” or ““Section ofthe Labourers,” and similarly with other divisions. Letters threatening judges have been received •from Madrid, Barcelona, and other .places. The word has gone forth that for every member of the society who dies ten bourgeois will be sentenced do death. The soil of Spain has long been, favourable to ‘growths of this "kind. Frequent-civil wars have familiarised : the people with ideas of violence. The old bandit spirit has never been wholly •crushed out, and revives at the first call. The monarchy is not secure. The long struggle by which it was sought to establish'a Federal had many sympathisers in the south, and though the effort was -unsuccessful, it Helped to prepare the way for ’the dissemination of Communist ideas. But more than this, 'here, as elsewhere, there has been actual suffering or wrong to stimulate discontent. The failure of the crops in two successive seasons has, with the existing corn laws, pressed severely upon the peasantry. The phylloxera has ravaged the vineyards, and work has been scarcer. There are ooaiplaints, too, against landlords and their agents that they have been inconsiderate in their demands, and that ejectments have been frequent Sfam wanons-causes. In these -circum--stances the emissaries of the International found their opportunity. The Madrid correspondent of the Sta'ndard describes the revolutionists as “ spreading their action by means of secret and well-contrived associations, rasing all the entrapping' prestige of mystery and solemn initiation, acting upon some by the bait ot coalition to raise salaries and to assist the workmen, enticing others by announcing the approach of a popular and revolutionary rising; enlisting the credulous and Ignorant by loud denunciations the-landlords; securing the Beruices of the criminal classes by organising a secret tribunal to inflict cruel penalties, and in some cases «&eath. Ready agents were found among the band’tti and the desperate cfcararcters wan-ieilng about southern thigh wends, and in the suburbs of the great cities, to-carry out the orders of Hie anarchist Juntas, and they practi cally quelled the landlord’s, the farmers, the employers of labour, by the destruction ot crops, the cutting down of beautiful vine plants and olive trees, by maiming the flocks, and by fnceodiaiism Jand moonlight * visits. The local authorities, and particularly the magistrates, found it well nigh impossible to discover the authors of ionnmerablp, outrages, and the middle ■classes dared not complain, as they were instantly punished by unknown bands, or received threatening letters. Many timorous people paid black mail to avoid plunder, and at is said that thousands even in the better classes joined the outer circle of secret societies to get a protection that the law could not afford The country around Jerez, Arcos de la Frontera, Utera, and between these places and Seville, had got to be most notorious. The authorities hit upon the trail of the Socialists in an unexpected manner through the revelations of a poor fellow who turned approver because he did not wish to murder his employer, as he had been ordered to do by the Junta. So the authorities discovered the inner c.rcle of the anarchists, the band of the Black Hand—--a device their chiefs wore in their -cravat pins, and used on their papei, together with daggers and other signs They gave each associate a -number,

and seldom or never placed names on their lists. They were, divided int( circles of ten or 30, under a loca' leader, who alone knew his immediate chiefs, and or nothing of the pro moters ” Within a fortnight 800 arrests were made, and from day to day the number increases. The prisons are so full that the local authorities are perplexed. There is, indeed, some reason to fear that the great mass of the Andalusian peasantiy are banded together in this movement against the classes above them. The raerabois oi the society have to pledge themselves to prefer its interests to those of then own families. Each one on entering is said to serve a novitiate, and is only admitted by unanimous election to the full privileges. Women may join the organisation. The latest investigations show that the society has ramifi-cations-in Estraraaduva. The Madrid Government believes that it has powers sufficient to cope with the mischief; but outrages continue to be reported In some cases information has been obtained from prisoners. It appears that a secret tribunal met on the 4th of Dt-cemlier last, at a solitary place near Terez to judge a member of the band; the ; r unfortunate victim was condemned to death—“ beaten, stabbed, shot, and afterwards buried,” in spite of all entreaties and resistance. This same tribunal, the members of which have now been tracked, had execute 1 no less than 14 persons; and besides, had paid others for acts of incendiarism, and other deeds of revenge and intimidation. It is alleged that the Mayor of Terez has since received a letter threatening to prison the drinking water ot the town if the “ persecution” of the members of the Black Hand continues.—London correspondent ot Arqut.