RUSSIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8138, 12 May 1906, Page 5

RUSSIA.

OPENING OP THE DUMA. PROTEST AGAINST RESTRICTIONS. Received May 11, 10.30 a.m. ST. PETERSBURG May 10. Great efforts tire being made to create an impression Ijjthat S*. Petersburg is jubilant at the openiug of the Duma. A general holiday was proclaimed, church bells were rang and To Jieutns sung. Forty thousand troops are concentrated in the capital.' Two hundred present members of the Duma protested against the terrible restriction placed by the Government upon the aotivites ot the Assembly through the new organic, laws, They invited the whole country to reoognise that they emanated from the Government, and that it was impossible not to take a gloomy view of the future.

PROCESSION OP MEMBERS CHEERED. Received May 11, 11.2 V p.m. ST. PETERSBURG, May 11. Eager oiowds in the direction of Tauride Palace warmly cheered the procession of Members of the Duma thither. Professor Mouromtseff, of Moscow, bea been elected President of the Duma, which has resolved to ask that an amnesty be granted to political prisoners. NEW REACTIONARY MINISTRY. Received May 11, 10.30 a.m. ST. PETERSBURG, May 10. The following portfolios have been allotted in the new Ministry:— Minister of the Interior M. Stolypine. Minister of Finance M. |Kokovstaff. Procurator of the Synod—Prinoe Schirinaky. All three Ministers are reactionaries. SPEECH BY THE CZAR. RECEIVED IN STONY SILEJNCE BY THE! DUMA. Received May 12, 1.29 a.m. ST. PETERSBURG, May 11. ' There was a noticeable absence of people around the Winter Palace, where, amidst a magnificent cere menial, the Czar arrived almost by stealth. He addressed the Council of the Empire and Duma ia a colourless speech from the Throne. He was received in stony silence by the Duma, and applauded only by the Court and bureaucrats. The speech created the deepest disappointment.