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Kumara Times, Issue 494, 27 April 1878, Page 2

A telegram which, if it is to be relied upon, is pregnant with the most sinister meaning, appeared in our issue of yesterday. It conveys the information that on the previous day (Thursday) the Russian commanders announced to the officers and men of the army «f occupation thfit they will attend the Greek Church in Stamboul on Sunday next. • If this means anything, it means that to-morrow will le consummated the series of gross violations of the Treaty of Paris which must plunge Great Britain into a war with Mus- i covy j it means—if it be more than an v

empty threat—that' to-day England stands closer than ever to the brink of that great struggle which we have always considered to be inevitable. A year has elapsed since Lord Derby declared that a Russian occupation of Constantinople would be regarded •as a casus belli. Since that assertion was made he has been succeeded by a more war-like Minister • and unless the Government is deliberately intent upon humiliating the British Crown in the eyes of Europe, it will, in the only way it can, resent the insult it is intended to-morrow to put upon her. Is there any man so blind to the real intention of Russia as to believe that if her troops are to-morrow morning marched into Constantinople to “attend Church,” they will not go prepared to remain for less peaceful purposes ? In considering this matter one is irresistibly reminded of a Biblical story relative to betrayal by a kiss ; and there is a certain grim humor in the idea of a Russian Imperial Guardsman going to worship in the Mosque of St. Sophia with a crucifix in one hand and a sword in the other. In this case, we fancy, the sword, unless Admiral Hot nby has his guns run out in time, will prove the more convincing of the two.