THE RUSSIAN TERROR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 28

THE RUSSIAN TERROR.

TRIAL OP EX-DUMA MEMBERS.

ST.' PETERSBURG, December 30. Counsel defending the ex-members of I the Duma, who signed the Viborg manij festo declare that their clients are entitled I k> be tried in Finland, where the manifesto was actually signed. They contend that if -circulating the document was a act, -each case' ought to be tried j"ir\ the judicial district where the alleged offence occurred. I The Oppositionist members of the third Duma- have presented Professor Mouromt- [ seff (President of the ex-Duma) with' an address of sympathy. M. Ramisvile, one of the accused, created a sensation, in court by recalling Sir EC. Campbell-Bannerman's famous "La Duma est morte" speech to the Russian ( parliamentarians* when they visited the . Houss of Commons^ declaring that if the accused possessed the sympathy of the Premier of Great Britain they were^able to -dispense ( with the compassion of a Russian court of justice. - January 1. - The -trial of the ex-members of the Duma for alleged treason has been concluded. Two of the signatories of the Viborg manifesto were acquitted. The rest were convicted, and sentenced to three months' imprisonment, besides the loss of all political rights. January 5. There are 140,000 persons confined in Russian, prisons. This is 34,000 beyond the number it is possible to accommodate sanitarily.