RUSSIA AND GERMANY.

Kumara Times, Issue 1090, 29 March 1880, Page 3

RUSSIA AND GERMANY.

The following is an extract froni the St. Petersburg letter of the National Zeitung :—" The news that the German Government has resolved to make considerable augmentations in the army has fallen like a thunderbolt on Russian society at large. At this moment especially, nobody was prepared for such a determination. The attacks of the Press on Germany had very much lessened, the report that Russian troops were being massed in Poland had been flatly contradicted, and Russia had declared that she would reduce her army by 30,000 men. It was, therefore, not to be expected that the German Government would answer the peaceful assurances of the Russians by a proposed augmentation of the army. The tone of the Press is, consequently, somewhat reserved and melancholy. It is, perhaps, of use to remind the papers that this reinforcement of the army need not be directed against Russia, but by this measure is, perhaps, more caused by similar steps which have been taken in the French army. But the Russian Press ought to know well what the proposed movemeuts in reference to the German Government mean, and on pretending to be ignorant of them, and in representing themselves as persecuted innocents, they only follow the example of the French Press."