The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-11-17
In TERROR'S GLOOM.
Wholesale Arrests Made
by the Cars Police.
The Work Done With the
Greatest Secrecy.
Famine's Horrors Also
Kept from Publicity.

LONDON, November 16.-Since the ar
rest at Moscow on Thursday last Of about
a hundred members of noble families, lit
erateurs and others, charged with being
concerned in the movement looking to the
creation OF popular assembly or parlia-
ment, similar to the Temsky labor assem-
blies under the early Cars, 1t has become
known that this alleged conspiracy was
of much wider extent than at first sup
posed, and 1t Is said that several hundred
people have been taken into custody In ad-
dition to those referred to. From the
time the discovery OF this plot became
known, the correspondents 10 Russia OF
the news agencies and newspapers have
been doing their utmost to discover the
inwardness of these wholesale arrests, but
evidently without success. for little or no
news regarding this revolutionary move
ment can be procured. Au Uaited Press
correspondent at st. Petersburg wired last
night as follows:
Strictest censorship press dispatches ob-
served. Government contemplating severe
measures against newspaper correspondents.
Almost impossible to get or send facts regard
planning creation OF a parliament elected by
The people. Reported extensive arrests here
as well as Moscow and other cities. ALI infor-
nation refused. Police advise correspondents
not comment on arrest. Situation very grave.
Widest rumors circulating.
In this city, however, there are number
Of prominent Russian exiles. who seem to
be able to laugh at the Russian police, and
who are kept constantly well informed by
some secret means as to nearly all that
in mnGt
prominent of these refugees was question
ed last night in regard to the large number
of arrests now being made in Russia. After
the correspondent had pledged himself not
to use his informant's name, the latter
said that never in the history Of the Rus
sian empire was the situation Of affairs
within the dominions of the Gar so des-
imperial regimen. Not quarter Of the
real horrors of famine are known, he ad-
ded: thousands are dying In the famine
stricken districts of starvation or typhoid
fever, Influenza or other diseases. In
some sections, said the Russian gentle-
man. the distress Is as great as
when the cholera or plague swept down
upon villages and towns and nearly wiped
all their inhabitants off the face Of the
earth. Even were the government so con-
stituted that an honest attempt could be
made to relieve the sufferers, even had the
government at its disposal the immense
sums of money which would be necessary
to relieve the distressed, thousands more
Of them would perish before help could
reach them, even supposing that the in-
clemency Of Russian winter would per
NIT the free transportation of supplies.
In view of the famine, official crooked
ness, disgraceful disclosures In high circles
the danger of war and the practical fail
ure of the new Russian loan, Russia's rul
ers are in position which Is far from en-
viable, and to which war would be a relief
as 1t would take the public mind off tht
contemplation of official abuses.