THE STORY OF THE ANTI JEWISH RIOTS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2504, 17 April 1882, Page 4

THE STORY OF THE ANTI JEWISH RIOTS.

A correspondent who lives in St. Petersburg sends the following to the " Pall Mall Budget"—"Having had exceptional opportunities of studying the condition of the Jews in Russia, I venture to sond you the following information on the riots which have taken place last year in the outhern provinces. I am a Protestant, a born British subject, and having been mauy years resident in Russia ' I speak fluently the Russian and German languages, and in late years, although I have no family connection with the Jews, I have had business transaotions with Jewish Russian subjects to the amount of some millions of roubles per annum. This I could not avoid if I did business at all, for with some small exceptions the entire business of the western provinces is in the hands of the Jews, and those who desire to trade in those districts have no choice, and, whatever may be their prejudices, must necessarily enter into relations with the übiquitous Israelite. The importance of 'my business connections in the towns of Odessa, Kiev, and Warsaw compelled me to hurry to the spot on the receipt of the first news of the disturbances of whioh they were the scene. In Kiev order had been completely restored before my arrival, but I reached both Odessa and Warsaw immediately after the first outbreaks, and while those towns were still in a most disturbed condition, and further riots, though not of a serieas nature, occurred daring my stiy. When I visited Kiev, some ten days after the actual disturbances, the lower part of the town on the banks of the Dnieper, which is the chief business quarter and the residence of the majority of the Jews, presented an appearance whioh I shall never forget. Rows of houses were oompletely wreoked. Not only had every artiole of furniture and other property been pillaged and removed, but the Tery doors and windows had been torn off their binges. The prosperous and the struggling Jewish traders had alike lost their all, and complete ruin stared them in the face. And this was no ordinary business loss. Not only bad their stock-in-trade disappeared, but their very houses had become uninhabitable, and they were left to wander forth in search of shelter with nothing in the world but the few clothes whioh thoy had on their backs when attacked by the furious mob. Huddled together in a sort of encampment in the fortress I found some 2000 miserable creatures—men, women, and children—who had lost all they ever possessed in the world, and were living on the rations served out by the authorities until the assistance of their co-religionists should prolidd them with the possibility of making a fresh start in life. Among these poor refugees were not only those who had once been rich, but also, as the report issued by the Government showed, a very large proportion of industrial labourers, carters, porters, and other individuals whose poor lodgings had been wreoked and rendered uninhabitable from sheer wantonness. I naturally made all possible inquiries as to what had taken place, but beyond what the evidence of my own eyes established I found it most difficult to obtain any trustworthy information. The authorities resorted to every possible device to prevent the truth being known. The statements of the Christian townspeople were generally confused and untrustworthy, and, strangest of all, Jews with whom my acquaintance had been of long standing, and who in other matters have always shown me perfect confidence, evidently feared the consequences of answering my questions on this subject. With regard to the aotion, or rather in. action, of the authorities, ttero was no difficulty in ascertaining details, and it was perfectly clear that as long as the mob confined their depredations to tbe business quarter of the town and tbe Jewish dwellings, they were, for whatever reason, allowed full licence. As regards personal violence towards Jews, it was more difficult to arrive at accurate information. From what I could learn, however, it did not appear that such Jews as bad peaceably submitted to the destruction of their property had as a rule been molested. Exceptions to this rule there certainly were, bnt to what number I could not ascertain. One old man, keeper of a booth for small wares in the central market place, was severely beaten and abused and his head out open, without any interference on the part of the military or superior police authorities who witnessed the ooourrence. Women were roughly handled, and some stripped of their clothes if they appeared worth taking; but I did not at the time bear that any of them had been otherwise outraged. I did, however, learn that great violence had been committed by isolated " bands of marauders in the outlying parts of the town, and that a number of murders, variously estimated at from twenty to thirty, had been committed in the suburbs; but I believe this estimate to be excessive. I cannot speak witb confidence on that subiect, but it appears unlikely to me that the ialf- drunken rioters of the lowest class, r who indulged unchecked during forty eight . hours in every other species of exoess, should • have abstained from insulting the numerous defenceless youn g women who were com pletely ■at their mercy, especially in the smaller provincial towns, where the rioters completed their work of destruction, and wreaked their will on the wretched Jews and their families before the possible arrival of any military or other force to check them. The criminality of the inaotion of the authorities during the first two days of the riots at Kiev was only equalled by tbe disgraceful attitude which they assumed at the subsequent trials of the rioters. The Government prosecutor in his opening speech distinctly expressed sympathy with the motives of the outbreak, and the lightness of the majority of the sentences passed showed that his sentiments were not unshared by the Oourt. Among other facts connected with the ' Kiev riots, tbat mild excuse offered by the authorities as to their unwillingness to risk a collision between the soldiers and the mob > is utterly untenable, as the following facts will prove. Tbe warehouse and dwelling of the Jew merchant with whom I have my most important business in Kiev are situated in the central market place, where the first fury of . the mob was witnessed, and where the greatest numbers assembled. A Russian officer chanced to lodge in this house, and to him the Jew merchant, with a promise of - money, appealed for protection. The officer immediately placed two soldiers at the door of the warehouse and ordered them, with the promise of a reward, to protect the entrance. The mob several times threatened an attack. bnt the soldiers presented their bayonets and successfully frightened the would-be plunderers. By this means, and at the expense of a hundred roubles, my Jew acquaintance his property intact; while within 300 yards of his door, at the other side of the square, be witnessed the wholesale destruction of his neighbors' goods and the cruel assault on an old man, which took place in the presence of the chief authorities of the town, the Cossacks meanwhile -sitting motionless on their horses, await- ■ ing orders which no one thought fit to give. Besides tbe blame for inaction which attaches to the authorities at Kiev, it is a sad fact io relate—but one which was proved at the trials.— that Russian merchants, soldiers, policemen,.and even an officer, took advantage of the general pillage to secure a share of plunder for themselves. It does not appear that at Kiev the soldiers openly joined in the -work of destruction, but even from the Government reports of what occurred in some of the .smaller towns in the neighborhood it is pretty clear that small bodies of military who had been ordered out to protect the Jews, simply joined the rioters when disturbances actually broke out. The statements, made in England that the authorities at .Odessa are equally blamable with the officials in-Kiev ana Warsaw is not true. I had every, opportunity of ascertaining the facts on this subject, and although I will not say that.a highly organised and intelligent Administration might not have dealt more satisfactorily with the outbreaks in Odessa, yet I am -bound to declare that, taking all circumstances into consideration, no reasonable blame oan bo attached to the 1 superior officials in that town. Odessa contains a most mixed population, and a* a frontier town, the terminus of a great railway, and a large seaport, its inhabitants naturally include several thousand individuals of mongrel nationality and of the lowest moral type. With such unruly elements always present, the smallest disturbance may rapidly develop into a serious riot. Tbe authorities', it is true, had ample warning that they might expect an anti-Jewish oatbreaV, but they undoubtedly had made such preparations to meet it as they anticipated would be -sufficient. When, however, the disturbances actually commenced, tbe mob of rioters swelled with a rapidity whioh astonished everybody. It had not been considered advisable to make a parade of the troons before they were actually required, and similar caution was displayed in not iromo-

diately calling out what it was suppo<- d would be on excessive force ; but on the flrai alarm a certain number of Cossacks and other soldiers hurried to the scene of t e disaster. From what I learned on the spot immediately after the occurrence from numerous witnesses of the affair the failure of the troops to restore order at once was due to a most unexpected but exceedingly simple cause. The number of actually violent rioters could have been easily dealt with, but, the day being a holiday and the streets full when the outbreak occurred, an immense crowd of idle spectators had assembled and had completely obstructed the thoroughfares before the appearance of the troops, and hence the officials on the spot found themselves in an unexpected dilemma. Suoh a system as that of reading a Riot Act is unknown in Russia, and those individuals in the orowd with whom the soldiers and police first c»me_ in contact were precisely thooe who were taking least part in the affair. The officers in command not unnaturally feared the responsibility of using violence towards peaceable citiVni who happened to be in the streets during the progress of the riot, but at the same time until the orowd of idle speotators was dispersed, there was no possible means of checking the rioters. When the situation was realised, the Goveimr-General wasapplied to for special instruction*, and he unhesitatingly ordered that all persons who delayed retiring before the movement of the troops should be immediately arrested ; and he despatched large forces to the spot with icstruotions to use whatever means might be neoesaary to seoure the fulfilment of his ordsrs. It is generally Btated that this first riot iasted some six hours ; but if the time be oalcalated whioh was required to summon the troops and bring them to the spot, and subsequently to apply for and receive the neoeseury supplementary instructions from the Governor, and finally to disperse the immense orowd of speotators before the rioters themselves could be dealt witb, it must be allowed that, regrettable as was the delay, no epeoial blame can be attaohed to the authorities. Again, it has been frequently stated that the riots in Odessa continued during the greater part of a whole week. This is in a sense true, but it equally requires certain explanations. The unfortunate slowness in meeting the first outbreak had its natural effect on the lawless part of the population, and consequently the more turbulent spirits were encouraged to renew their violence. During several days, on different occasions and in various parts of the town, it wbb attempted to recommence the work of plunder and destruction, but in no case after the first outbreak did such renewal of disturbance last over an hour. The authorities were thoroughly on the alert, and promptly displayed the necessary force. In suoh affairs several Jewish houses and shops were wrecked, but the total amount of destruction was very limited, and in no oase did the rioters escape with impunity. I fear that such space as you may be willing to allow me will not permit of a detailed acoount of the disturbances in Warsaw, and I must therefore confine myself to the general observation that, in my view, based upon a certain knowledge of the facts, the authorities in that town, far from imitating the oiample given in Odessa, were, it possible, even more culpable than those in Kiev; for it waß certainly fully fortyeight hours after the first outbreak in Warsaw before any pretence was made at taking effective m°asures to restore order. There is one point to whioh, in conclusion, I would especially draw attention, and that is the determination shown by the Central Government in preventing the publication of information concerning the anti Jewish movement. None of the regular correspondents of the press resident in Russia has been able either to obtain trustworthy information on the subject or to publish such facts as accidentally came to their knowledge. Telegrams were suppressed by order of the Minister of the Interior, and no information on the subject was allowed to be published in Bt. Petersburg till three d»ys after the commencement of the riots. I enclose my card, and my name is probably sufficiently well known to you, but the fact that I have still business connections with Russia will sufficiently explain my desire to withhold it from unnecessary publication.