When they began to realize this state of affairs some of the Russian commanders made desperate efforts to check the spy mania. General P. Kurlov issued the following order in the Baltic provinces on February 25, 1915: ORDER No. 27 “Of late, more and more anonymous denunciations and reports concerning crimes and actions closely connected with the peculiar conditions of war times are coming in in the provinces given over to my supervision. Such reports not only lack confirmation in most cases, but investigations prove that they are caused in the majority of cases not by a patriotic desire to help the military authorities, but by personal reasons of revenge, not only not admissible in war time, but also particularly criminal. By distracting the attention of officials from their necessary duties, these reports promote disorder and excitement among the local population. “I have asked the various Governors to order the police officials under their supervision not to institute any investigations on the basis of anonymous denunciations except in extraordinary cases (Article 300 of the Criminal Code), but to forward these denunciations to me and wait for orders. “In the case of signed denunciations and reports, the police officials must first of all question the denunciator, warning him of the consequence of a false denunciation, and if any signs of crime should be established in the courses of the examination, he should be dealt with according to Articles 250 to 261 of the Criminal Code, or the Governors should impose penalties in their administrative capacity. I order the police officials to strictly follow Article 254 of the Code when making an investigation. Witnesses found to bear false reports shall be subjected to criminal prosecution according to Article 940 of the Code. “In view of the particularly criminal character of false denunciations in war time, I shall apply the most rigorous measures to those found guilty of this offense. “I have asked the Governors to make this order public to all.”[32] SUPPRESSION OF YIDDISH PRESS AND SPEECH It appears also that the similarity of the Yiddish and German languages further laid the Jews open to distrust. The use of Yiddish, in conversation, in correspondence, over the telephone, in the theatre, etc., was prohibited by legal, military and civil authorities under penalty of heavy fine and imprisonment. In Lodz, Vilna, Riga, Warsaw, and other Jewish centers, the performance of plays in Yiddish was prohibited and theatres closed. Letters from foreign countries to Russia, in any language except Yiddish were generally passed by the censor after scrutiny, but letters in Yiddish were as a rule not delivered at all. In July, 1915, the commander of the Russian forces issued the following absolute order: