RUSSIAN SECRET POLICE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 453, 6 April 1909, Page 4

RUSSIAN SECRET POLICE.

AZEFF AND HIS METHODS. AN EXTRAORDINARY MAN. Scarcely anything in the romantic literature suggested by the Russian revolutionary movements is stranger than some of the stories which arc being told of the exploits of Eugene Azeff, the remai'kable Jew who long filled the double role of organiser for the terrorists and agent of the secret police at a salary of £4,000 a year; a promoter of assassinations on the one hand, a hunter of assassins on the other, writes a London paper. “ The Boi'gias,” says one of the terrorist leaders at Geneva, “wore almost angels when compared with Azeff. He has massacred at least i,500 of ns, and sent three times that number to living death in Siberia.’’ Something more than caution and clever calculation were necessary to him throughout his career. Cool daring was one ot his most striking characteristics. Danger, according to Dr. Dillon, seems to have had an irresistible fascination for his distempered mind, treason for bis abnormal soul. He took a perverse delight in living in constant danger of being stabbed by the revolutionists or hanged by the police. Yet he appeared always calm and selfpossessed, was attired in the height of fashion, sought distraclion in the gay places of Northern Palmyra. From icjoz ho resided on the banks of the Neva, but occasionally paid a short visit to Paris, where his family lived. Like Ms friend, Gershooni, who was the ablest revolutionist Russia has ever produced, Azeff gave all who came in contact with him a high opinion of his energy, will, and resourcefulness. He was never taken aback, never hesitated, never flinched. Gershooni and he founded the “ Fighting League ” of the revolutionary society, and he created many branches and other associations of a similar character in Russia and abroad. He was the moving spirit in the historic mutinies of Sveaborg, Cronstadt, and Moscow, and he was an indefatigable police agent in St. Petersburg, Paris, and Moscow whenever there were conspirators to arrest. The secret police attached great value to Azeff’s services, but they deny that they employ such men when, in addition to supplying information of terrorist operations, they take a hand themselves in crime. “ We cannot frustrate dastardly plots,’’ an official of the police department explains, “ unlesss we contrive to obtain timely information about them. This involves the employment of individuals who are members of the circles where these plots are fabricated, and this necessity we consider an unavoidable evil. But connivance at crime we vigourously eliminate frv our system in theory and practice. A reason of State cannot justify lawlessness; therefore if any agent perpetrates crime he will be dealt with as a criminal.” Yet Azeff is credited with having planned the murders of M. de Plehve and the Grand Duke Sergius, and his connection with both these crimes cannot have been unknown to the police. The general assumption at St. Petersburg is that they paid him mainly, if not exclusively, to give information of plots aimed at the life of the Tsar, and were indifferent to what he did or instigated in other directions. It seems clear that even after he entered the service of the police he remained to a large extent genuinely in sympathy with the revolutionary movement. According to a report published in Paris, Azeff proposed to the terrorist organisation that an attempt should

bo made to assassinate the Tsar by dropping explosives from an aeroplane. He is said to have collected money ostensibly for (lie purpose of conducting experiments of this kind, presumably the, money went into his own pockets. He is known to have handled the funds of the revolutionaries in the French capital in a very tree fashion. For some years before his disappearance he created a good deal of suspicion among his dupes by the extravagance of his habits. It is believed at St. Petersburg that M. Lopnhkin will ultimately be exonerated from the charge of high treason which has been brought against him.