EARL RUSSELL ON THE EASTERN QUESTION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 931, 31 January 1871, Page 3

EARL RUSSELL ON THE EASTERN QUESTION.

Earl Russell has written a second letter on the Eastern Question. After reviewing the traditional policy of Russia in regard to Constantinople, and the effectual character of the means (the neutralisation of the Black Sea) adopted to check it, he says: —" It seems to me that we ought to stand as a nation upon the ground which Lord Granville and his colleagues have taken. I attach little importance to the sarcasms on the internal government of Turkey. The internal government of the Czar is quite as corrupt as that of the Sultan; but our object is not to maintain the present administration of Turkey, but to keep Russia out of Constantinople. Nor do I see any difficulty in procuring an embodied militia. With a sufficient bounty we might easily enlist 100,000 men for five years' service. The late Baron Rothschild, of Paris, told me that if at any time the English Government, of which I was then the head, wanted 100 millions sterling, he would be happy to furnish the sum; so that neither men nor money would be wanting. Thus provided, I should be disposed to say, in the spirit of Lord Granville's dispatch, if the Russian Emperor asks for a conference on the Treaty of 1856, at a time when such a conference can be assembled, let us meet him in a fair spirit, and consider with France, Prussia, Italy, Austria, and Turkey in what manner we can find a substitute for the neutralisation of the Biack Sea. But if the Czar proposes to set,aside the Treaty of 1856 by force, let us meet him by force, and the sooner the better."