WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF RUSSIA BE VICTORIOUS?

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 69, 17 September 1877, Page 2

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF RUSSIA BE VICTORIOUS?

The Moraing Post, adopting the views of the Selavopbils for the nonce says : — "It requires no extraordinary powers of conjecture to forcast the mutual relations of Prance and Germany for some time to come. >If not engaged in actual hostilities, they are certain to be watching one another fiercely across the new boundaries as they are to to-day. Italy would not assurredly be loss disposed to be Russia's benevolent ally in case of Eussia's triumph than she is at present, while she only expects the victory of the Muscovite pclicy. As for Austria, whatever elements of weakness and disaSectio i. may exist among her Sclav populations while the Russian standards have not yet advanced beyond the Danube, we may be convinced that in the event of Eussian influeuce being definitely predominant right down to the Adriatic, the centrifugal pel ion of the Sclav nationalities of the Hapsburg \lonnr«hy would bo immensely .stimulated. If Austria must bo natural now in tl c p esent concisions of affairs, we may be satisfied that after peaoe, on Eussian terms, she must be not only neutral, but subservient. There only remain, then, the British and Kussian Empires to be taken into consideration, and to be compared with one another. What will be, what must be, the position of liussia in case of such a victory as is desired by our Selayophii agitators ? The expulsion of the Turks from Europe or their retention on terms of comple vassalage—and we think the complete expulsion j the more probable of the two— will have | extended the Eussian dominion practically to Greece and the Adriatic in Europe and to the Persian Gulf in Asia., The Turkish fleet, either surrendered under the terms of the treaty or destroyed, will in either case have lelt the Black Sea to j. become a Eussian lake, whose shores will be thick with arsenals and shipyards, in which the cheap but terrible torpedo fleets of the future will be furnished in any numbers, and from which the huge transports for the cenveyance of Eussian ■expeditions can issue at any moment The Bosphorous and the Dardanelles may be^ nominally neutralised or subjected to some kindred process of diplomatic legerdemain, but to all intents and purposes they will be within the reach of a Russian expedition within four-snd-twenty •'hours. Instead of the thirty ironclads of the Eussian fleet, or their equivalents in the fleet building of the future, being cooped up in the Baltic, they will be established in the Black Sea ; and one hundred torpedo vessels and all their attendant enginery will be at the Suez Canal before any reinforcements from Great Britain could cross the Bay of Biscay. On land Eussia will be absolutely invincible. The millions of the Christian populatlan of what was European Turkey will be at her disposal, whether they bs " autonomous" ten times over or not. Asia Minor will be as firmly in her hand, when the hand has closed oh the highlands of Armenia, as are the •plains of Alsace-Lorraine in the hands of the masters of Meta and Strasbourg Syria will be crouched at her feet ; Persia will be her menial. At the same time, the warlike sprit of her own people iwill be inflamed by their mighty triumphs to. wider achievements, and the dream of excelling Alexander and Napoleon will no longer seem vain or. chimerical ia the case of. the ruler of a hundred millions of men established in such positions of .unparalleled advantage and predominance. Is this picture overdrawn in the humblest details? 'Will not Eussia dominate in ■the! Sclav lands of Europe, and will she notidictate to the broken Mahommedanisra 6F Europe? Is it possible that it could be 1 " otherwise P And what must be the position of England? By what resources iis England to bold her Indian Empire, or even to retain an open market for her commerce in Asia ? The Moslems of the world will hate Eussia, but will respect their conqueror all the same. They will have hate deepened with contempt for the perfidious fools who betrayed at once their allies and their own most vital interests. Nay, if any spark of ambition still remains in the beaten Mohammedans, that remnant of a mighty flame will only be able to kindle to some likeness

of its former .self 'at our immediate detriment. If. Russia- cast back the Kbalif upon Asia, then it* wilb become the duty of the Khahf 'to enthrone lii» faith once, -more in glory, at Delta as well as at Bagdad. We clearly cannot hope for the two things together^ to hare Russia supplant the Ottoman, and to havo tho Mahommedan contented .with our policy. Is it tinder these conditions that we can expect to oppose the march of the Czars ?'"