BRIBERY IN RUSSIA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2508, 27 May 1893, Page 3

BRIBERY IN RUSSIA.

One may live a long time in Russia and hear little of Siberia, which the Russians consider a necessity of their political existence, its horrors being for the most part of the past. A growing impression prevails tj}at Sibera is a rich gountry, full of promise of future wealth to the empire, which the railway now being constructed will speedily develop. The Russian police form a fine body of men, fairly educated as a rule.' There are, in addition to ordinary police, whose officers are usually military men, two pther branches—the gendarmerie or detectives, and the secret or political police. Both these latter are very unpopular, and held in great awe. Their dat : es may he expressed in one word, espionage, and yery well they dp it. Their members are legion, and they are everywhere. No party of Russians, no society, feels secure from their°mysterious presence. Bribery {g a QOipmon practioe’among officials of all ranks, although when detected it is severely punished. A. story in this connection is told of General Van Wahl. When Governor at KioT he received a yisit ope day from a poor woman, the widow of a police agent. For a long time she had solicited the pension which was her due. The head of the police, to whom she had addressed her demand, always sent her brutally away. &he went to the Governor, and told him all her story. “.Sit down there and write,” replied the General, pointing to a writing table. The trembling woman tookher seat and wrote from the General’s dictation a long supplication. “Now address it and Wait for me in the next »odm.” Two or three minutes afterwards the woman was recalled, and the General gave into her bauds a sealed letter, saying to her ; “ Take this letter to the head constable, take care not tq open it, and come back ip mo as soon, as you have a reply. At the end of a week the woman went to the palace again, but this time joyfully : her pension had been granted to her. and thanked the Governor with joy. “It is useless to thank rno ; 1 n nothing in the affair,” and he imhi idiately gave the order that the Chief Constable be banished to Siberia. The r ;asoa ; “ Because he granted a demand after having received a sum of money fr so doing.” In the letter, which the Widow had written to the head of the p lice, General Wahl had, unknown to her, slipped a bank-note for twenty-five roubles, which accounted fqr her supphcatioir being granted,