RUSSIAN PENAL CODE. Secret Meetings of All Kinds Prohibited.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 280, 11 July 1888, Page 3

RUSSIAN PENAL CODE. Secret Meetings of All Kinds Prohibited.

It is hard for an American to realise a state of affairs in wliich the public expression of a judgemnt or an opinion with regard to governmental action is ' unpermitted,' and in which it is more or less hazaidoub for a dozen law-abiding, citizens to meet at regular intervals in a private house for the discussion of public questions. Section 320 of title 4 declares that ' Persons guilty of belonging to a society which employs any means whatever to conceal from the Government its. existence, its nature or its aims, or to koep secret its mtetings, the subject of its deliberations or the relations between its members, or a society which secretly disseminates any doctrines what ever, &haJl be imprisoned in a fortress for not le&b than four nor more than eight month*, or in a prison for not less than one nor more than three weeks, according to the circumstances of the case.' ' Of course, persons who meet regularly foi any purpo&e in a private house render themselves liable to an accusation bSscd upon this section. As soon as their meet ings attract the attention of the secret police they are made the subject of an official examination, which almost always leads to consequences more or less unpleasant for the participants. I know a group of gentlemen in St. Petersburg who meet at stated intervals for the dienssion of public affairs, and who, although they are neither conspirators nor revolutionists, spend the evening in making a pretence of gambling in order that neither the servants nor the police may suspect them ot secret machinations. In the eyes of the Government a club of gamblers is a safe and innocent organisation, but a private debating society is a dangerous menace to social order and to the rights and privileges of the supreme authority. '