Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-03-25
OPINIONS AND VIEWS FROM
THE EXCHANGES

nv n great many in the trade, and
will result in increased orders for
domestic fabrics produced by nils
whose products have stood, the test
of our methods of garment manIfec-
turing and proven eminensly Sits
factory.
Russia's Black Cabinet -
From the Boston Transcript. sa
Much American mail to Japan and
other countries of the Far East trav-s
els by the Siberian route, so that the
United States becomes directly inter-
ested in a minor international crisis
which Russia's Black Cabinet has
brought on. The Black Cabinet is a
vast secret organization subject TO
the minister of the interior, when
spies on private correspondence; and
now Great Britain, Japan and ltalyS
are complaining that the cabinet, in
its thirst for surreptitious knowledge
is ignoring the postal convention
which declares private correspondence
to be inviolable. When the mail bags
via Siberia from England to Japan,
or the mail bags back from Japan, ar
rive at their destination they are
often a week late; and many Of the
letters bear signs of having been tam
pered with. Sometimes no conceal
ment is made. Newspapers are opened,s
articles censored and BACKED outs
with the sticky mixture which Rus
slams call print caviare.
Italy's protest has another basis. &c
Is that the Black Cabinet NEEDLES not
only with Russo Italian correspond
ence. but that it even maintains att
Rome. under the nose of the Italian =
police, a Black Cabinet manned bN-s
Russians and by Italians, when in
tercepts letters of Russians resident
in Italy; opens them, and sometimes
out of too much professional zeal
even steals letters of Italians to ltal-
ians. The Black Cabinet is so bold att
times that after reading private LETT b
ters it does not take the trouble to
forward them to their destination, but
destroys them. That fate overtake5
even letters which have nothing to do.
with Russian affairs. Invitations to-
dinner and delicately-s scented ep!stle7
are sacrificed to Ru6sia's spy system
Postal cars on the Siberian railroad
are infested with the Black Cabinet.
Russian railroads, all around, are
nests of "perlustration, and this il
so well known that the European en-
bassies never use the post even for
private letters. The Siberian mali
cars were given over to the Black
Cabinet during the revolution, the
reason being that numerous East
Siberian revolutionaries took refuge
in Japan and kept up from there q :
correspondence with their country
men Just now a conflict is raging
over the rights of the Black Cabinet
on railroads. Against the Black Cabi-
net is Minister of Communications
Ruchloff. who is relatively liberal and
likes to pose as very liberal. Ruch-T
loft refuses to let the Black Cabinet
travel free in Siberian mail cars and I
he quotes the law, which gives that
right only to postoflice clerks. Min
lister of the Interior Maklakoff re-a
plies that the cabinet members havee
always Travelled free on trains. Be-
hind this storm in a teacup are cer-t
tain private interests, and in par
ticular there is the zeal of Maklakoffr
to justify his claim to have made tho
spy system moro efficient ~