REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 19 June 1907, Page 3

REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.

SQUADRON out of commission. WHOLESALE ARRESTS. CONSTITUTION OF NEW DOUMA. . London, June 17. The Daily Express Odessa correspondent it is reported from Sevastopol that the Black Sea squadron luis reen placed temporarily out of commission, the gun locks having been removed.

Seven hundred seamen and gumnrs have ibeen arrested. The tone of tlie English press in iv igard to the position is somewhat pessimistic. The next Douuia will consist of 442 members. ' Class suffrage will be extended to landlords. The piv»ent electorate will thus be reduced. The representation of Poland, the Caucasus, and Siberia will be reduced by one-half. Direct elections with a higher pro- • perty test will be instituted in the larger cities, but such important centres as Khasan, Kharkoff, and Sanatoff will , be disfranchised. Sixteen of the accused deputies have escaped. St Petersburg, Jun« IS. M. Purishkevitch created a great uproar in the Douim on Saturday i>y declaring that the Social Democrats ought to be sent to the scaffold. •While a Russian torpedo boat was discharging torpedoes at Sevastopol one struck a cutter in which the Comman-der-in-Chief was cruising. He narrowly escaped drowning. The oflicers of the torpedo, boat have been arrested on a charge of attempted murder.

(The franchise of the first Douma was based on class representation, and was conferred on the following classes: Owners of real property subject to taxation, provided they had been in possession of such property for at least one year; owners of industrial concerns paying taxes;-persons paying a trade tax>pefsons paying, inhabited house duty; persons possessing dwellings in their own names; arid persons in receipt of salaries from the State, the Zemstvos, the communal authorities or the railway authorities.)

RUSSIA INDIFFERENT OVER THE FATE OF DOUMA. Received 18. 10.20 p.m. St. Petersburg, June 18. . Russia is singularly indifferent over the dissolution of the Douma. THE "P{/)T" DECLARED A FICTION. , FEAR OF OFFENDING GERMANY. Received 18l!i, 11.40 p.m. London, June 18. The Daily News dj:lares that it is rumored at St. Petersburg that the plot - was all fiction. The cause of {he dissolution of the Douma was the fear of offending Germany by making concessions In regard to the language question to Poland, for without the Poles' support, which was withheld with a view to bargaining, the Government was unable _ to pass the Budget. Finally German influence at the Cout decided the matter M. Stolypin; the Premier, it is further stated, will not yield to reasonable reforms.