"THE PROGRESS OF REFORM."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9174, 25 August 1908, Page 3

"THE PROGRESS OF REFORM."

The chief argument "put forward by Sir Edward Grey in defence of sending King Edward to call on the Csar wa9 that the progress of reform in Russia would be greatly accelerated by the friendship of a democratic Power. It is a beautiful theory, remarks a London correspondent. The tnord nice things the English say about the good, kind Czar, the more that amiable monarch will love and cherish his grateful subjects. Unfortunately, the Czar's ide;i of reform is rather different from ordinary British potions of what that much-abused Work signifies. Consider the progress of refor-n in Russia in the year 1907. I take the facta from an article in the London "Tirr.fes" by Sir George Trevelyan: Thirty thousand prisoners left the Central Prison at Moscow on their way to Sibera last year. Out of that 30,000, only 2,835 had ever been brought before a court. Roughly, 27,000 of last year's exiles were untried. They had been torn from their homes and banished into life-long exile on account of their political opinions. The mora enlightened and intelligent their views, the more certain had been their terrible fate, in this way the pick of Russian humanity is being herded into exile without trial. This year, as last, Uuinandß are being sent off to Siberia every month. Since the amnesty of November 2nd, 1905, no fa,ver than 100.000 men and women have been exiled to Siberia and the n /rthern provinces—unconvicted convicts in an ice-bound wilderness. The ireeJjm of the Press under the Constitution granted by the Czar was respected by him as follows: — "From June to October, 1907, 84 newspaper.-? were suppressed, 35 editors put in prison, three exiled, 133 newspapers fined, and 60 editors had criminal proceedings taken against them. Under these conditions the utterances of the few re naming* newspapers, living from day to day with the sword of Djmoclas over their heads, will hardly be taken as a free expression of opinion." Meanwhile the prisons are so crowded that although hospitals and 1 natic asylums are fitted up with <•3113, the accommodation is not , enough by 50 psr cent. Of trade unions, says Mr H. W. Nevinson, 81 have been violently closed; of newspapers, 28 were suspended in the ■ first month of this year alone. In March and April the Czar extended a free pardon to 180 scoundrels righteouly imprisoned for the pillage and slaughter of Jews in pogroms. At Riga, the gaol officials tried and sentenced to imprisonment for inflicting appalling tortures ; on political prisoners of both sexes had hardly begun their sentence when they received full pardon from the Czar. "Let us not be deceived," sayj Mr Nevinson, whose Russian experience entitles him to be heard; "if the Czar were not himself a stu pii, bloodthirsty, and superstitious tryant, the state of Russia would be v ry different to-day."

Even if the. Czar be not responsible for the murderous brutality of iiis minions, Sir Edward Grey has still to explain how England's friendship is going to help the victims of oppression. Will it bring a singli exile back from Siberia, or stop a single execution? Will it not rather strengthen the hands of the autocracy by raisin? Russian financial credit and enablin? her to float a j mu-h-needed loan? If the friendship of a democratic country will accelerate the progress of reform in Russia, why has not the friendship and alliance with France, a country in some ways even more democratic than England, had mote effect on the internal policy of Russia? Since the King's visit to Reval the Constitutional Democrats have been dismissed from all zemstroos and municipal bodies on the plea that they belong to a party opposed to the Government. Not even Sir Edward Grey could suggest that this step accelerates the progress of reform. It means, of course, that the hands of the autocracy have been strengthened.