The Times of Thursday publishes a long and very temperate
account of the recent Labour movement in Odessa, from which it would appear that the Government acted with more moderation than has hitherto been reported. The strike there assumed great proportions, nearly the whole working population being "out," and the Government at first pro- claimed itself neutral, or even at heart upon the side of the men. The respectable classes, however, became alarmed, and, on their petition to General Petroff at St. Petersburg, orders were issued placing all authority in the hands of the military. Even then those authorities refrained from violence, though they prohibited public meetings, and it was not till, at a meeting of twenty thousand workmen outside the town, revolutionary sentiments were openly expressed that the Governor ordered the strikers to disperse. They refused, and were charged by the Cossacks and the infantry. Neither, however, used firearms, the Cossacks plying their terrible whips, and the infantry the butt ends of their rifles. Only eight persons were killed, and after the dispersion, as we learn from other sources, the employers were persuaded to make considerable concessions, especially as to hours. The correspondent seems to think the treatment of the men severe, as indeed it undoubtedly was ; but we question if less severe measures would have been adopted either in France or Germany. All over the Continent, indeed, a strike when attended with refusals to disperse on demand is treated as a small revolt justifying the use of ff;rce. It is well to be fair even to Russia.
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