ALTAI 133 



the one hand, we have to deal with hot-headed 

 university youths, running over with exaggerated con- 

 ceptions of their rights and obhg'ations to society, 

 and, on the other, with an administrative force per- 

 petually in readiness to crush disturbances of the 

 public peace. 



English people are prone to believe that because 

 the people of Siberia have no voice in the settle- 

 ment of national questions they are of necessity 

 opposed to the Government. I, too, went to Siberia 

 with that idea, but soon discovered my error, and 

 found that there were more people in favour of the 

 existing system of government than against it, and 

 that it is a very general opinion that if a census 

 could be taken of the views of the people the majority 

 would be found to have voted for the Government. 



To the American already referred to I made the 

 following remarks with reg'ard to the rioting I have 

 dealt with above. I said : "In the first place it is 

 not likely that the police would have picked a quarrel 

 with the students, as they must have known that 

 they were in the minority, especially as they were 

 obliged to call the mob to their assistance ,• secondly, 

 it is not likely that the mob would have helped the 

 police if the students had been molested first ; 

 thirdly, to fight the police at all was a defiance of 

 the law which would have been put down with a 

 strong hand in England or any other civilised 

 country, and, lastly, the very fact that the students 

 had assembled to the number of i,ooo showed their 

 intention to defy the law, which prohibits such 

 gatherings." But proof that justice is tempered with 

 mercy in Siberia may be found in the fact that 

 when the students refused to disperse unless the 

 police and the soldiers were withdrawn, the demand 

 was immediately complied with, the authorities being 

 plainly desirous to deal as leniently as possible with 



