The sun., 1907-04-14

FafmamentAry Commissions Expose tne
Present System Or Plunaer -Enorts
70 Provoke the House Into Collisions
HBtS CLar-scCret Police Activity.
Special cabii DsSpafoA 10 TEE SUN.
Sr. PETERSBURG. April I3.-The imperial
DECISION that the Government cannot CO
operate with the Duma remains as valid
as when 1t was reached a fortnight ago.
The forces within the Government which
are urging this course have been strength
ened by the events OF the last few days.
The behavior Of the Duma during the
plenary sessions has been so impeccably
correct that IL is not % be expected that
any repetition Of Pureshkevitch's demon
strati0n in behalf Of the Absolutist League
will provoke the House into a collision with
the sovereign.
missions offers. however. a formidable
weapon TO parties who wish to strangle the
National Assembly as a representative
body. Even II the commissions. from
motives Of ultimate gain. accept the 1dront
Of having armed gendarmes outside their
doors to prevent expert witnesses they have
invited from entering. it Is the intention Of
their enemies to go on finding provocations
until they have stamped out the Duma
commissions altogether.
This attitude Of the bureaucracy has GER
tainly the logic OF the situation on its side.
The Tchinnovniks say frankly that they
have no intention Of surrendering their
spoils so long as they believe the Duma
to be too weak in national force TO capture
them. Their position is best illustrated
by the Famine Relief Commission, which
has invited Nicholas Lvof as first expert.
He is the President OF the Saraton Zemstvo.
He was a Moderate member Of the first
Duma. but failed Of election to the present
house because he was not radical enough.
He headed a Zemstvo COMMITTEES which
toured the distressed provinces during the
last winter and prepared a report. The
report contains no recrlminations in regard
to past misdeeds or accusations OF thieving
but confines itself to furnishing material
for framing a better system OF relief for
the future. based on decentralization and
J Ab)1elgS BIN q Las D. SreGiselA NkAI& Ahs
St Petersburg bureaucracy cannot tolerate
as IL will take the business Of grain con-
tracts and the appointment OF a vast num-
ber Of famine relief functionaries out Of
the hands Of the present departmental
chiefs Of the Ministry Of the Interior.
Official hostility 10 the habeas corpus
commission is even more implacable. It's
first work deals with arbitrary arrests
ordered by the Ministry Of the Interior
and orders given by the political police
in the provinces. The first witness is
NJ Lopuchin, whose report furnished the
material for Prince Ourusoh's memorable
speech In the first Duma, which described
how pogroms were organized
NJ. Lopuchin was chief Of the Special
Service Department under the late NJ. Won
Plehve, and was in the Ministry Of the
Interior until the October manifesto, when
he decided to enter public life in the Con-
stitutional Democratic party.
II the Government had been able to
find anything criminal or dishonest against
him he certainly would have been already
In jail, but all his conduct goes to prove
that he simply took real interest in parlia-
mentary life and placed his Official export
ence at the disposal Of the first Duma as
soon a. il came into existenos. His expert
evidence on the political police is regarded
by the Reactionartes a. infinitely more
intolerable than NJ. LvoiT's on the famine
relief.
The political police, by the way. are
allowing sleepless vigilance in the care Of
tho imperial family. They managed to
circulate a story OF an attempt on the life
OF the Gar the other night. Independent
inquiries failed TO discover a scrap OF CON-
hrmation for the report, but il Is certain that
the budget for the political p1lce will not
be reduced while its officers can keen
imperial fears awake.