THE RUSSIAN.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 68, 23 March 1901, Page 3

THE RUSSIAN.

To the Editor of tho Times, Sir., —I forward yon a clipping of an ably-written article which appeared in the Auckland Herald ; it has been read by a number of us, and wo would feel much obliged if you could see your way to print it, as wc think it would interest the many readers of the Times. It is herowith appended.—l am, etc., Reader, AX ASIATIC POWER. If we treat and think of Russia as a European Power, when she is in every essential an Asiatic one, we err in the very basis of our theories. Russia is as absolutely and completely outside the European system as the United States is within it. For when we say European in this relation, we do not mean merely those States lying within a narrow and confined geographical boundary, but every State which has sprung up under the influence of Western civilisation and is peopled by those who accept tho European policy in all that

appertains to social and political life. We here in New Zealand are completely European, not having been affected one iota by the inferior civilisation and alien people which preceded our occupation, however much wc may have affected them. The same ideas of law and order, of civil rights and religious liberty, of property and of morality, are sot before us in varied forms and with various success are set before every European nation. The public morality of v ALL EUROPEAN NATIONS is the same in kind, however much it may differ in degree. Consequently, however much we may distrust one another, and however much we may criticise one another, we know that certain influences will stir us to our depths and will appeal to a common morality, a common conscience upon which wc may reasonably roly. Whatever wc thought of the Kaiser’s famous speech, wo understood well the European wrath which inspired it, and however much wc doubt the permanent friendship of France, none doubted that the

gallant nation would not willingly rest until European prestige had boon recovered. We can understand how our

American cousins, nationally indisposed to lay hands on China, and desperately anxious to march out of it, have nover flinched in their determination to abide

: the Concert until a peace worthy of ic white man can bo made. What is

tarder to understand, what is incompreicnsiblc to many who wish to think well f all their fellow creatures, is tho dupliity and treachery of Russia. That a

great nation should play the spy upon its allios and comfort its enemies, should slaughter innocents in cold blood and aid tho guilty to escape, should agree to make no secret treaty even while it is securing a great concession by secret treaty, and should stop at nothing to wrench gain for itself from the extremities of its consorts, is hard to believe because almost impossible to understand so long ns wc consider Russia to be European. But remember that SUE IS PURELY ASIATIC, is the Cossack still in spite of all tho superficial clothing imported from Western Europe, and tho doings of Russia become as natural as before they seem unnatural. Wo can oven understand that her detection in that amazing treachery of making a secret treaty involving the cession of Manchuria by China at tho very time she was declaring under her own hand and seal that she would make no secret treaty will not in any way shame her diplomatists. Russia is said to be yielding to the pressure being brought to bear upon her in this matter—the Trans-Siberian railway being not yet able to transport great armies to the Far East—as Russia always yields when she realises that sho must either yield or risk a battle for which she is unprepared. But the Russian diplomatists cheerfully ignoro any detection. They will protest as indignantly against the execution of the guilty princes and be as sorrowful at tho aggression of Britain as though they wore tho soul ol honor and the mirror of chivalry. Subtle and deceptive as European diplomacy is, such treachery and effrontery are not its symptoms. They are distinctly Asiatic. Tho Russian is upon the

MORAL PLANE OF (JIIINA, not upon the moral plane of Europe, tic can get immediately into touch with Li Hung Chang because they understand and esteem each other ; neither can got into touch with the European, whoso morality they scorn and despise in moro than Machiavellian humor. The Eussian cares nothing for the massacre of Christian missionaries in China ; if he thinks of the matter at all his opinion would doubtless bo that it served such meddlesome and objectionable people right. Ho had no interest whatever in an “ open door ” ; his energies aro bent on including as much of the world as lie can grasp within his own closed door. He feels no desire for revenge at the slaughter of Eussians in Manchuria, and knows that the Chinese aro equally indifferent to the slaughter of their country-people across the Amur; but HE SYMPATHISES ENTIRELY with the innate objection of despotic rulers to commit suicide or offer themselves for execution at the request of distant foreigners; and he appreciates altogether the preference ■of the Chinoso diplomats to givo a slice of territory to a kindred enemy rather than to submit the entire Celestial Empire to the dictation of the incomprehensible European. In short, Eussia has absolutely no motive whatever for being in the Alliance excepting the shrewd Asiatic perception that it is a good business stroke to be in it for the time, an I the dogged Asiatic determination to obtain as much territorial aggrandisement as possible from this providential opportunity. Anything of the nature of what we call morality simply docs not enter into the calculations and schemes of Eussian bureaucrats —not even as national prejudices to be allowed for. For the Eussian Tsar has to meet no Parlia-

ment. He can make war or peace, advance or retreat, without even consulting by telegraph with anybody.