RUSSIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8524, 31 August 1907, Page 5

RUSSIA.

THE PLOT AGAINST THE CZAR. Received August 30, 10.52 p.m. ST. PETERSBURG, August 30. The court-martial on eleven men and seven women, in connection with the plot against the Czar, has concluded. Lieutenant Nikitenko, a naval lieutenant {wfoo admitted that he had obtained material for use against the Czar Nicholas and M. Stolypin, the Premier), and two others were sentenced to be hanged. Three others, including a woraian, were sentenced to eight yeai-s' imprisonment, and another to four years in connection with the plot to overthrow the existing regime, while '"our women and a man were sentenced to life-long exile in Siberia. Six were acquitted.

(The following are the details of the plot against the Czar. The information, which was derived from Court circles at Tsarskoe Selo, indicates that the conspirators aimed not only at the life of his Majesty, but at that of his infant son, the Czarevich, born fJuly 30th, 1004. A Rus--1 sian girl student and revolutionary . made the acquaintance of a Cossack of the "Convoy," as the bodyguard of the Czar is termed. She "f-on-verted" the soldier, as she thought, to revolutionary principles, and offered him £BOO if he would attempt the life of his Imperial master, the Czar, and that of the Czarevich. The assassination was to be accomplished on the 2nd of April, when the Cossack's turn came to guard his Majesty's apartments. The soldier demanded £I.OOO as blood money, and the negotiations were prolonged until shortly before the date named, when the Cossack informed the adjutant of Prince Trubezkoy, commander of the Palace Guards, of the efforts which had been made to seduce him from his allegiance. The adjutant directed the Cossack to appear to fall in with the plans cf the conspirators, and to do as they directed him. As he was proceeding to the palace on the fateful evening to assume guard duty, two men, who had managed to conceal themselves in a shrubbery at Tsarskoe Selo, beckoned to him and handed him two infernal machines, each scarcely larger than a watch. Wonderful workmanship was shown m their construction, and, although so small, they contained explosives of enormous power. The Cossack was directed to place them beneath the beds of the Czar and the Czarevich. The guard promised to carry out these instruc tions, but instead handed the infernal machines to his superior officers. At the same time measures had been taken for the arrest of the conspirators. The palace had been surrounded on all sides by troops, and the cordon being narrowed the men were captured. Their accomplices, whose whereabouts had been ascertained, were also arrested. In this way a plot, which aimed at the removal in one night of the Czar and his heir to the throne of All the Russias, was foiled in the very moment which the revolutionaries had chosen for the execution of their atrocious dans.) '- I