THE RUSSIAN POLICE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3172, 24 April 1909, Page 7

THE RUSSIAN POLICE.

Dr. A. S. Kappoport contributes to the "Fortnightly Review" a scathing article mi the Russian police. His text lies in the twin discoveries that Azeff, the revolutionary leader, was a police spy, arid that Lopukhin, ex-chief of police, was a revolutionist. The vast and cumbrous police system, he says, exists for one all-importa'nt purpose, the suppression of Liberal movements. The police are not the servants, but the enemies of the pubilc. Police and society represent hos tile camps and continuous war. This obsession is so complete that the vast majority of real criminals enjov complete immunity. The police pay for all ranks is poor, but policemen are opulent, for they know how to levy tribute on all and sundry. Espionage is a work of darkness and mystery, and the influence of the political and secret police has become so great that they are now beyend the control even of the Minister of the Interior, their nominal head. What chance is there for liberty when everyone has good cause to suspect everyone else, and plot and counter-plot are being consummated on all sides with the utmost secrecy? With a thousand eyes autocracy watches the Russian nation as through it were a dangerous^foe.