their conscience does not allow them to do, and the ceaseless persecution and torture of them on this account. There is probably here some misunderstanding, and therefore it is that the promulgation of the truth which may remove this is specially important.
Help!
[This Appeal attained its purpose by drawing the attention both of the public and of the higher authorities to what was being done to the Spirit-
Wrestlers by the local authorities of the Caucasus. But for the three friends who signed it, the result was their banishment—two of them, P. Birukoff and J. Tregouboff—to small towns in the Baltic provinces; while V. Tchertkoff was given the choice between the same sentence and being
altogether exiled from Russia. He chose the latter as affording him the possibility of helping, from abroad, his persecuted friends, which would have been impossible under the conditions of strict police supervision under which those banished to Russian towns have to live.]
