Los Angeles herald., 1905-11-30
GOVERNMENT IN DARKNESS
TeIegraphers' Strike Places Army In
Serious Predieament
BY Associated Press.

serious Predicament
BY Associated Press.
ST. PETERSBURG, Nov. 29.-The
situation has again suddenly grown ex-
ceedingly grave. The Russian capital
Is shut off from telegraphic communi-
cation with the interior.
The Pan-Russian strike of telegraph
operators declared yesterday has gone
into operation and the workmen's
council is celebrating whether to de-
clare general political strike through
out Russia tomorrow, pointing this
time to the unwarranted arrest of the
members of the peasants congress al
MOSCOW and also calling on the people
to compel the employers at st. Peters.
burg, who locked out 10000 men, tc
open their doors.
The telegraph strike draws an i'm
penetrable curtain between the capital
and the provinces which in such a
crisis renders the position of the gov
ernment almost desperate, as being ir
constant touch with the military and
local authorities in the interior is i'm
perative.
If the telegraph strike can be main
tanned the government will be com
PEELED to grope blindly in the dark
Inc employees of the offices here have
not yet struck but they are expected
Telegraphers Resent Order
only two lines are working out of St
Petersburg. Telephone messages from
Moscow, which are momentarily ex-
pected to stop, say that the operators
on the Siberian lines and on all the
lines south, north and east of Moscow
have struck.
Communication with Sebastopo1 and
Odessa has ceased. The operators on
the lines throughout the Baltic prov
lnces have also struck.
The telegraphers' strike is the direct
outgrowtf of the governments circula,
prohibiting telegraph operators from
Joining union, which prohibition is
attributed to M. Durnovo, minister OF
the interior, for whose removal from
off1ce the radicals are vigorously work
ing. The minister recently summarily
discharged the leaders of the MOSCOW
union, and yesterday their colleagues
sent a twelve-hour ultimatum to M
Durnovo and Premier Witte, demand
ing the reinstatement Of the dismissed
men and the withdrawal Of the OBJ.
noXious circular.
No answer being forthcoming at the
specified time the strike was declared
The teleg1aphers of Moscow after leav-
ing their keys, held a meeting in ar
adjoining building, and upon the ap.
pearance of the police and troops Sen-
to break up the meeting they declared
that they would not disperse, even il
the authorities used force.
Cropping in Darkness
Sebastopol being cut off from tele-
ital, it is not known here whether the
mutinPprS have Sllrrandpre1
The last authentic dispatch which
came through announced that Sebas-
topol was practically deserted except
for the troops. The scared population
have fled in all directions, and Balak-
lava and neighboring towns were filled
with refugees.
Count Wltte in Danger
The Slave, which Is supporting Count
Witte, has become exceedingly pessim-
istic. 1t says the revolution consti-
tutes double danger, since "every sue
cess of the revolutionists enables them
to point out the danger of continuing
the reform program while every turn
of the wheel backward stimulates the
revolutionists to make new attacks Oh
the government"
The editor of the New Pictorial
satyrical raper-Poulemal-w was
arrested November 27. has been re-
leased. Writing of his experiences, he
says he was arrested at 2 o'clock in
the morning, that his apartments were
rifed and that he was held for two
days in prison in violation of the in
volatility of person guaranteed by the
imperial manifesto. The public pros
ecutor, however, found that the editor
had not committed any crime and M
Durnovo was compelled to order his
liberation. "Yet this is called the new
regime" says the editor in conclusion