The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-14
VII Russ,s's Army side WIN 'He r,aT
az With the lIuma3

FROM tho hour when collision between
chs bourbon monarchy on the n hand
and tho States General, transformed
into a national assembly. On the other,
WA seen 10 be- Inevitable II could u"
soretold that tho outcome NJ tho contest
would depend upon tho attitude 81 the
French standing army. ~ WINS on July
~, iTse-two months and two days after
the States General had met-that some
Swiss and German troops In the nay of
LOUIS XVI. were ordered TO disperse
q procession organized in Paris by way
Of protest against NECKER's dismissal.
They fired on tho people. As II hap
pened, a soldier Of the Gardes Francaiscs
was among the killed, %whcreupon the
whole body OF the Guards stationed in
Paris sprang into revolt and the old
municipality was swept away. Two
DAYS later occurred the successful as
sault on the Bastile, In which French
Guards took part, and which was cor
rectly described by a courtier who wit
messed il as no revolt, but revolution.
To what extent will the Russian SOL
diers side with the Duma. and how o o
will the lines be drawn? 1t begins to
look as il the question might be answered
oven more quickly than it was answered
In France. The Duma has already done
what the States General did not dare TO
do during the first two months OF its
existence: 1t has not only protested
vehemently against the reign OF mar
tial law and the summary executions OF
arrested persons in Riga and Warsaw,
but it has interpellated the Government
concerning the alleged grievances OF
soldiers who have mutinied and are
still unsubdued. Such defiant cham
pionship can hardly fail 10 enlist the
sympathies Of the rank and file on the
side of the popular assembly, and it
remains to be seen whether the Govern
ment will dare to rebuke and discipline
that body.
For the last week such information a
has reached us concerning the temper
Of the rank and file in many regiments
has been Of an ominous character. We
were told, for instance, on June II by a
telegram from Odessa, where have been
landed 1872 900 troops that had taken part
In the Far Eastern war, including many
who had been prisoners in Japan, that
the strictest precautions had to be taken
TO prevent them from coming into con-
tact with the civilian population, for the
reason that they were known to be
largely disaffected. AS regiment after
regiment arrived it was broken, up and
distributed in small detachments among
various towns, but the sole result seems
to have been the diffusion Of the seeds
of instruction. 1t appears that the
repatriated officers make no secret Of
their belief that if the Duma can hold
it's own for a while it al count on the
support of a large part Of the army.
In the provinces of Kursk and Poltava
mutinies have already begun. At Kursk
an infantry regiment made certain de-
mands, on the refusal of which the SOL
diers beat their Colonel and received
with derision his order to lay down their
arms. The artillery and even the Don
Cossacks, who formed a part Of the same
garrison, disobeyed an order to attack
the mutineers. At Poltava on the day
named an infantry regiment, exasperated
at the failure of the military authorities
to keep their promises regarding an
amelioration Of service conditions, left
their barracks armed with rifles and ball
cartridges and held a meeting in a
public square, at which delegates from
another regiment of infantry and from
an artillery brigade pledged their sup
port to the mutineers. In other words.
these two important provincial cities
have become foci of military insurrec-
ton. Still more alarming from the
viewpoint OF the Car and his reactionist
advisers is the growing doubt as to
whether aver the troops stationed in the
capital can be relied upon. On June II,
according to the st, Petersburg Gorge
spondent of the London Tribune, several
nom commissioned officers and thirty
troopers of the Horse Guards, together
with some non-commissioned officers Of
the Preobrajensky Guard regiment, were
marched to prison, and the sentinels
have been trebled around the fortress in
which they are confined. Moreover,
both regiments have been shut up in
their barracks, while the Novocherkasky
regiment has been broken up and appor-
toned among places outside Of the capt.
tai in consequence of the discovery of
revolutionary literature in its quarters.
In view of such signs of far reaching
arrangement in the army the Dumas
peremptory demand for a redress of the
soldiers grievances is well calculated
to provoke a formidable instruction.
II NICHOLAS II. were a man to set his
back against the wall and night with
desperation for his crown and his dy-
nasty, he might still, perhaps, collect.
sufficient strength to cope with v a
widespread mutiny, although he could
scarcely hope long to Withstand the fury
which would be excited in the Russian
pessantry by a dissolution Of the Duma
and the extinction OF their agrarian
hopes. As a matter Of fact, although
ne has in General TREroFF a counsellor
OF iron temper, there is no reason to be-
lieve that the presant Russian SoverAiOn