THE RUSSIAN SECRET DESPATCH.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—As a Russian subject who follows with great interest all questions of Russian domestic policy, may I point out to you with reference to the now famous secret despatch published by the Times that it is rather curious no one has yet pointed out the inherent improbabilities contained in it ? (1) It is most unlikely that a letter written late in March by the Minister should bear a current number as low as 341. (2) Instructions of so compromising a nature would, if given at all, certainly be given or conveyed verbally, and not in writing. (3) If M. de Plehve had intended to encourage anti-Jewish riots, the result would, in view of the existing feeling of the masses, have " staggered humanity " and caused an exodus apt to put the sincerity of European sympathisers to the practical test of necessitating shelter for nine millions, or whatever number would have been left, of Jew emigrants.—I am, [We print our correspondent's letter, but we cannot pro- fess to say what value is to be attached to the internal evi- dence he adduces against the authenticity of the despatch.— ED. Spectator.]
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