RUSSIA’S NEW PREMIER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 24, 11 January 1912, Page 8

RUSSIA’S NEW PREMIER.

OLD ORDER TO BE MAINTAINED

“ LET THEM CRAWL.”

The attitude of Russia’s new Premier toward the revolutionary forces that are trying to liberalise the Empire is a matter of keenest interest to all who have been watching events in that distresscl Lind during the past few years. Stolypin, we are told met terror with terror, and repressed every liberal movement with a grip of iron. Will Kokovtself do the same? Ritlierto his work has been mainly in the field of finance, though ho was once employed in the Department of Justice, where, we read in the Hamburger Nachrichten, he introduced certain reforms in criminal administration, whose severity he tried earnestly to soften. Later lie became Assistant Commissioner of Prisons, and was active in improving the lot of the prisoners. Jn 1890, however, he begiiii to show his brilliance in finance, a lid in 1894 Witte made him Minister of Finance. Stolypin retained him in this post, “It is to his credit,” remarks the Hamburg paper, “that he brought into some sort of order the involved and tangled maze of Russian finances,” and “it will, in fact, be the' main object of the new Premier to solidify the commercial and financial position of the Empire.” Ho feels that this is the main problem hew, for ‘We read:— ’'■“ln tins work he professes to find th’e strongest guarantee of 'the Empire’s cultural development. In the Government’s candid co-oporation with the legislative bodies and public commercial organisations the hope of rapidly attaining the wished-for prosperity of the country most surely lies.” But the future policy of the now Premier is most clearly outlined by the official organ of the Russian Government, the “Rossiva” (St. Petersburg) in which we read that “the old order” is not to “give way to the new.” Things are to go on ns before in the administration, and we are told :

“The rumours, so widespread in the press, to the effect that there will be a change in Russian policy as a result of the assassination of Prime Minister Stolypin, are groundless. _ The policy of Stolypin, which was indissolubly bound up with the life of the Russian Empire and its needs, cannot doe with the death of its promoter. The safeguarding of the Monarchial idea, of the rights of the Russian sovereign and of the Russian people, always were and still are the duty of the Government. In a more emphatic assertion of absolutism follows as a result of the assassination at Kief, it is only because at the moment the Unsettling' excitement of popular sentiment demands it. As the foundation of popular representation lies in mipUlar education, so this education, il il ig to I'A of a truly national character must begin and end in a battle against revolution and terrorism.” _ ■ It is no easy task to be Prime Minister of Russia, and already Mr Kokovtself has many enemies, who toll stories to Ids discredit. One of them is related by the London Daily Chronicle to the effect that a deputation of loyal non-revolutionary working men waited on the new Minister and deprecated the Government’s prohibition of any trade-union activities among Russian working-man. Their spokesman pointed out that tin’s prohibition drives many loyal working-men into secret societies or “under-grounds,” as the Russians say. “Well, lot them crawl underground, if they like it,” sneered Mr Kokovtsoc. “I sa man capable of such expressions ,a statesman?” asks “ A Russian Journalist” in the paper wo quote from, and the Anglo-Rnssiau (London) comments as follows:

“Mr Kokovtseff reminds us of a callous politician of the time of the French Revolution, who on being told that the people wore literally starving, having not even dry bread to eat, replied in an equally contemptuous tone: ‘Well, let them oat grass instead.’ ’’ “Does air Kokovtseff know thin incident and its tragic sequel, when that heartless French statesman was hanged on a lamp-post and his month staffed with grass that ho might hotter realise the value of his own advice ?”