The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-06-07
THE RUSSIAN SITUATION.

The war in Asia appears seriously to
threaten the internal peace of Russia
and may result in partial atonement
for some of the crimes that have dis
graced her history. The partition OF
Poland in 1872, enlarged in 1893, and
ratified by the Treaty of Vienna in 1914,
was an ineffaceable outrage. If posi-
BILE, the Russianization of Finland was
more shameful. This country, attached
to Sweden in 1851 but for centuries in
vested with the substantial right of
self-government, was annexed to Rus
STA in 1909, under the condition that her
fundamental laws and her religion
should be sacredly preserved. Alexan-
der I. took detailed oath, invested
with every element of solemnity Ito
maintain all these privileges and laws
firm and unbroken in their full force
This oath was repeated by each of his
successors and by the present Car at
the deathbed of his father. Positive
statutes, applied solely to Finland, were
enacted to the effect that the new SOW
ereign could not abolish an old law nor
create a new law without the unan-
imous consent of the Diet, and, as late
as April 8, 1869, Alexander II. declared
this legislation or regulation to be ir-
revocable.
On February 10. 1899, the present Car
deliberately and in wanton violation of
his own oath placed the Finnish Diet
under the control of the Russian Coun-
Gil of State, and promulgated a mass
of despotic rules that, in their atroci-
ty, have never been eXcelled. The
~ s..t Il f.,
manly independence, and proud of their
polished city, Helsingfors, and of the
material and intellectual development
of their native land, have lost no OPP
portunity to migrate to other parts of
the globe. The Russian tyranny has
not only been continued but intensi-
fed.
These insults to humanity demand
reparation. They are only illustrative
of long series of offenses by the only
surviving representative of the worst
features of the Middle Ages. In diplo-
macy Russian mendacity has shocked
the moral sense of mankind. She is an
Ishmael among nations, because no one
believes her. Her falsehoods in refer
ence to her occupation of Manchuria are
virtually avowed
." Whatever the final result of the war
may be, thus far Russia has been
scourged by Japan. But her difficulties
are seriously aggravated by internal
disorders, information of which is or
dinarily repressed and only leaks out
through the opportunities that, in these
progressive days, medievalism cannot
entirely close. Enslaved nationalities
within her territory, are awake to the
situation and thirsting for revenge and
freedom. Such men as Tolstoi are even
penetrating the tough hide of the COM
mon Muscovites. 1t is evident that
there is disaffection, to some extent
in the Russian army and navy. Whole
sale executions in various parts of the
empire are being gradually reported
In Warsaw alone it is stated that six
hundred persons have been hanged
within q few weeks.
These indications of a severe inter-
nal conflict between the aspiring forces
of civilization and a petrified autocra-
cy are significant and indeed ominous
The labored effort to manufacture a
pretended sympathy for the Muscovite
in a Chicago club, by holding up a
non-existent yellow peril" is absurd
in the face of facts that are patent to
the world.