Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931), Tuesday 3 October 1905, page 5


RUSSIAN UNREST.

THE ZEMSTVOS CONGRESS.

SPEECH BY MR. W. T. STEAD.

LONDON, October 2.

The adoption by the Zemstvos Congress, which was attended by over 300 delegates from all parts of Russia and concluded its sittings at Moscow on Thursday, of an advanced electoral programme, which specially urged the need for reform in regard to land endowments, has gives the Congress an enormous influence over the

peasants.

The manifesto advocates the better regulation of the terms of land tenure, and the proper distribution of the provincial lands among the working peasants, who at present have to wander from province to province during the harvest time vainly seeking employments The document also insists upon the reform of the educational system, and the introduction of a State scheme of workmen's insurance.

The vast majority of reformers have expressed their determination to fight to the last," discrediting as they do the Government's intention to fulfil their promises.

A report of a speech delivered before the Congress by Mr. W. T. Stead, editor of the "Review of Reviews" (who is at present

in Russia, whither he has gone on his own initiative, for the purpose of enlisting support for the National Duma, whose establishment he regards as a very valuable instalment of reform), has been published in the "Daily Chronicle."

Mr. Stead urged the Congress to favor the institution of the National Duma, which he characterised as a stupendous and courageous advance towards the creation of a Representative Elective Assembly." It was unreasonable, he thought, for the delegates to complain of the many, limitations of the Duma's powers, for they should remember that those limitations were not final, but might be removed in the near future. Nevertheless he admitted that without liberty of meeting, liberty of the press, and liberty to associate, and security against arbitrary arrest, the Duma would be only a sham. The Czar, Mr. Stead considered, should appoint a Premier, who would be his spokesman, and be responsible to him for the rest of the Ministry.

Mr. Stead's eloquent appeal on behalf of the Duma failed to convince the Zemstvos Congress that the Government were sincere in their proposals, and sympathy with his utterances is publicly re-pudiated by the delegates.

Mr. Stead is now conducting a propganda in the Volga districts.

TRAGEDY AT LODZ.

A MILLIONAIRE SHOT.

LONDON October 1.

A dreadful tragedy occurred in a street of the great Polish manufacturing centre of Lodz on Saturday. While Mr. Julius Kunitzer, managing director of the great cotton firm of Heintzel- & Kunitzer, was riding in a tramcar, two workmen, who had previously been employed at the firm's establishment, but had gone out on strike, fired at and killed him.

The assassins attempted to escape during the confusion caused by their murderous deed, but one was arrested. The other escaped after firing his revolver at his pursuers.

FIREARMS FOUND.

LONDON, October 2.

A number of rifles and a quantity of ammunition have been discovered secreted at the naphtha refining works at Batoum, on the Black Sea. A fresh discovery of firearms has also been made on an island off the Finnish coast.