THE TSAR'S ABDICATION.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 3 July 1917, Page 6

THE TSAR'S ABDICATION.

NOT FITTED TO BULK in the history of thj world did fe monarch disapo »ar from un Imperial throne more pusilaniniously and prosaically than did Nicholas 11. ex-Tsar of all the Eussias. True, he is recorded to have told the ex-Empress years ago le would be glad to lay aside his troubled dignity,, and become the simple head of a religious house. But even so he could not have made a tamer exit. Below is told the story of his last hours as the "Little Father" of lis people, as sad as it is interesting and as amazing as it is touching and sad.

EMPEKOE WHOSE MINISTERS COULD ONLY GET "THE GLASSY EYE." In his account of the last hours of Nicholas II as Tsar of All the Eussias, tour special fcorresp|ondent at Pet4"<4grad writes: « - " : • Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodoroyna are prisoners in Tsarskoe Selo Palace. . ~t* *;.*'•-•- The eheif members of the ex-Emper-ct?s suite, Count Fredericks and General Voeikoff, are under arrest in PetTOgrad. The whole staff of Court servants has been disbanded. The armj' of spies an. informers that surround 'the Palace hive been arrested, and the small fry among them are to be sent to Frodi Palace, in charge of the new Commandant appointed by Gutekkoff, in Pskoff, received from the Tsar his abdication. Nicholas Romanoff is now a fallen monarch, a mere man. But who is he, this strange, elusive, intangible figure? Was there a man, after all, behind the veil of majesty of the Emperor of All the Eussias?

"YES, VEEY WELL." Since the revolution rent the veil he has said nothing, dene nothing, to show that he ever had the spirit of a monarch. He has expressed no will of his own, and was made no outcry, no protest, has submitted tamely, has expressed no opinion, has said: "Yes, very well, I agree; I abdicate for myself and son; thank you; good-bye," as though he were discussing the v.o-ather at an afternoon call. His suite made some slight protest; he never did. He knew what was coming, For months his faithful friends had told him frankly of the gathering storm. Warnings had no effect. Faithful counsellors were dismissed. Cousins who enforced the warnings were banished.

During the last days at headquarters Nicholas read Eodzianko 's telegrams, listened to Alexeieff's urgent exhortations, and did nothing. Summoned to Tsarkoe by his wife, he set out for his last journey as Emperor, and, after straying about like a bundle of lost luggage, he drifted into Pskoff, where lie abandoned the Imperial throne. Then he went to Mohileff, as he said to say good-bye to his staff, He came there and did nothing

HOUKS WITH HIS MOTHEE. His mother came up from Kieff, and in the evenings he went to dine in her train and spent hours talking with her. Alexeieff grew restless, was afraid the croud might lose patience, and telegraphed to the Government to have the ex-Tsar removed from the staff. At the same time Gutchkoff discovered that Nicholas and his wife weTe using cyphers in telegraphic correspondence. The Government accordingly gave orders for the arrest of them both.

Jour deputies —Bublikoff, Gorshtchicin, Gribunin, and Kaledin —were sent on Tuesday rfight (March 20) to Mohileff to carry out the order. There was a short interview with General Alexeieff, who informed the deputies that he had received instructions, and had prepared the ex-Tsar's train. Alexeieff then went to the station, and, entering the train, informed Nicholas of the order for arrest and the arrival of the Duma Commissioners. Nicholas went to his mother's train to say farewell, then crossed the platform to his own carriage. He was in the uniform of a Kuban Cossack officer with dagger at side. Crossing the platform amid the silence of the crowd he held his right hand to the salute, and with the left nervously twirled his moustache. That gesture was characteristic. It * was always Nicholas's way, instead of deciding, instead of acting, to twirl his moustache and to look in another direction. His Ministers constantly complained he would not say "Yes" or "No," and that his invariable reply to importunate requests was either to stare at them with glassy, uncomprehending eyes, or to look out of the window. The lookers-on mantained a grim silence. The Dowager-Empress watched from her window the departure of her son who had gambled awr.y his throne. All through the journey the Deputies held no intercourse with the dethroned monarch. In the night they

took turns to keep guard. "Without further incident the train arrived at Tsarskoe Solo at 11.30 on Friday morning (March 2i.) At eleven o'clock the day before the Tsar's arrival (Thursday, March 23), General Korniloff, the new Commandant of the Petrograd district went to the Palace, and insisted on seeing the ex-Empress. After some delay, she came out to him, dressed in black. Then followed a remarkable scene.

In the great reception-rcom stood the little Siberian Cossack general, with a bristling moustache, a man who had heroically fought with his division against desperate odds in the Carpathians during the great retreat. Opposite him stood the woman whose Jilind obstinacy, whose disastrous folly had been the prime cause of the terrible catastrophe of the Russian retreat. Koriloff had come to arrest her. She showed more spirit than her husband. She was cold, stern, bitter. Korniloff read the order of the Govern-

ment. She listened with bowed head. Halfway through she said, indignantly, "Thank you; you had better not go on." Korniloff persisted in reading the order to the end. The ex-Empress left the room, and Korniloff gave orders to the new guard. At 11.15 on Friday morning, fifteen days after his last departure for headquarters, Nicholas Romanoff rejoined his wife. So ends the sorry story, and even the Grand Duke Nicholas, who, as Com-mander-in-Chief of the Russian Armies, has been one of the most popular figures in Russia, has been retired from his post.—"Lloyds' Weekly."