THE DUMA DISSOLVED.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2111, 20 June 1907, Page 2

THE DUMA DISSOLVED.

MANIFESTO BY THE CZAR. COUNTRY GENERALLY UNSETTLED. United Presß Association —Copyright ST. PETERSBURG, June 17. The dissolution of the Duma was quietly received in St. Petersburg. The city is full of troops. Newspaper criticism is prohibited. Nine accused deputies have been arrested. Many arrests have also been made in 'Warsaw. The Council of the Empire has been prorogued until November. The Czar, in. a manifesto dated yesterday, attributes the deadlock partly to the novelty of Parliament and partly to defects in the electoral law, which returns members not truly representative of the needs and desires of the people. He upholds the manifesto of October 30tli, and.other rights conferred by .the fundamental laws. He considers the Duma ought to be Russian in spirit, inasmuch as it was summoned to strengthen the Russian state; therefore other nationalities of the Empire ougnt not, and shall not, be represented in such numbers as to enable them to be. the arbiters of purely Russian questions. He adds: “The Czar, who is the sole giver of the electoral law, and alone able to abrogate it, substitutes another, which the , Senate will forthwith promulgate.” The manifesto continues: “Firstly, I am resolved to complete the great work of reformation ,and look to my faithful subjects for united vigorous services in the direction indicated for the country, whose sons at all times have been firm in support of its strength, greatness, and glory.” The sailors of two Russian warships at Tendra Island plotted to throw the officers overboard and seize the whole squadron under Admiral "Tsiwinsky. The officers frustrated the plan. Sixty arrests were made. It is understood that-was street fighting at Sevastopol following the Tendra Island mutiny, and that this hastened , the dissolution of the Duma, Col. Guessekowsky, Deputy-Com-mandant of Sevastopol harbor, was assassinated. The murderer was arrested. The next Duma will consist of 442 members. Class suffrage will be extended to landlords. The peasant electorates will thus be reduced. The representation of Poland, the Causasus,'and Siberia will be reduced onehalf. Direct elections with a higher property test will be instituted in tire larger cities, but such important l centres as Kasan, Kharkoff, and Sanatoff will be disfranchised.

Sixteen accused deputies have escaped. LONDON, June 17. The Daily Express Odessa' correspondent says that it is reported at Sevastopol that the Black Sea Squadron has been placed temporarily out of commission, the gunlodks having been removed. ; ' Seven hundred seamen ‘and gunners have been arrested. The tone of the English press as regards the position is somewhat pessimistic

CAUSE OF THE DISSOLUTION.

LONDON, June 18.

The Daily News declares it is rumorod at St. Petersburg that the story of a revolutionary plot on the part of members of the Duma was a notion. The -real cause of the dissolution of the Duma was the fear of offending Germany by making concessions on the language question to Poland. for without tne Poles’ support, which was withheld in view of bargaining'' the Government were unable to pass the Budget. Finally German: influence at the Court decided fi ili StolyDin pot to yield the reasonable reform deriiSiifded'by t)je P.qjes. THE COUNTRY INDIFFERENT.

REVOLUTIONARIES FLEEING

ST. PETERSBURG, June 18Russia is singularly indifferent over the dissolution of the Duma. Many social revolutionaries ha.ye fled to Sweden.- Some whose arrest M. Stolypin demanded attended the' recent Social Democratic Conference in London,