I do not credit the statement going the round of the press which alleges that Governor Von Raaben telegraphed to St. Petersburg for permission to use the military in Kishineff in dealing with the mob, and that he waited vainly for an authoritative reply. No such permission was needed from either Minister de Plehve or the head of any other department. The criminal code armed the local Governor with the fullest power and discretion for the employment of soldiers within his government or province as a supplementary force to the police to preserve order. There were 8000 military and 350 police at Von Raaben’s command during the first day’s riot, and he was as much in absolute control of those forces in the task of dealing with the outbreak against the Jews as the Governor of New York State would be of the State militia in a similar emergency.
As to the question of remedy: What can be done to safeguard the men, women, and children within the Jewish Pale, from Odessa to the Baltic, from periodic outrage; and free the name of a great empire from the reproach of such organised Christian barbarism as that of Kishineff? This question cannot be dismissed on the plea that American and European opinion is concerned only with the humane task of relief. The best possible measure of relief that could be offered to the victims of anti-Semitic oppression in Russia, at this crisis, would assume the character and form of a friendly mediating influence exercised with the Tsar in behalf of the Jews of his Empire.
I have discussed this idea with a high Russian official during my tour, and I briefly summarise our conversation.
In reply to my question as to what could be done by the friends of Russia in the United States to procure some better protection for the Russian Jew, this official, who is thoroughly conversant with both American and British politics, said:
“It is no use appealing to Russia through the medium of indignation meetings. This is not how to exercise a friendly influence such as is desired. We resent attempts to meddle in our domestic affairs through the agency of political demonstration. It is an unwarranted interference by other countries in our internal concerns. How, may I ask, would your Government and press consider our action if we organised great gatherings and delivered violent speeches in protest against, say, the burning alive of American citizens, not alone without trial, but independent even of the form of legal indictment? You must look at the position of our Government in relation to the hateful crimes of Kishineff from many points of view. Our system of administration differs radically from yours, while the civil position of the Jews here has no parallel in civil and political conditions in America except, perhaps, in your treatment of the Negro and the Chinaman. Whatever faults our system may possess in your eyes, we consider it as being adapted to the domestic requirements of Russia, and to the social temperament of our people. We are not in any sense a cruel or a persecuting nation, nor do we hate the Jews on any religious ground. But we never will admit a people so foreign in every respect to the Russians in racial traits and character, in faith and in general reputation, to an equality of citizenship. You might as well ask the American people to permit Chinamen to become Mayors of San Francisco or members of Congress. There is something more to be said in relation to Kishineff; not in any sense by way of palliating the horrible outrages which I condemn as strongly as you do, but in the way of, say, such an explanation as a Governor of Alabama or Carolina would try to account to civilised opinion for some act of a mob of Christian citizens in burning a fellow-citizen at the stake. The Jew in Russia is the disciple and propagandist of Socialism. He has introduced this menace to our Government and system from abroad. He is believed by the tens of thousands of our people who are employed in our departments to be their racial enemy, and the foreign plotter inside our gates against the Tsar, who is the head of the system which gives them their means of livelihood and some prospect of future positions for their sons.
“These are the class of Russians who hate the Jews most, and the hatred is begotten of the same human selfishness which stirs up strife between rival classes in other countries.
“It is necessary to know all this in order to understand the fact that many persons above the rank of artisans and labourers took part in the shameful outrages at Kishineff.
“Allow me now to reply direct to your question:
“I can only make a suggestion, which is this: Let some prominent statesman or highly respected citizen of the United States visit St. Petersburg and seek an interview with the Emperor. This would be welcomed as an act of friendship, and could not be considered as an intrusion even by our Government officials. The Tsar would be sure to receive such a visitor as the spokesman of friendly American feeling.
“No kinder-hearted man lives to-day than the Emperor. No one in your country deplores the outrages of April more than he does. Moreover, like all Russians, he holds the great American nation in high esteem, and cherishes the friendly relations which have so long subsisted between the two countries. If, then, some one of your leading men, commanding wide respect, would undertake such a mission, he would accomplish a thousand times more to guarantee the Jews against further outrage than 10,000 public meetings organised by the Jews of your cities or on the suggestion of Russia’s kind friends on the London press.”