Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1897. England and Russia.

Manawatu Herald, 13 April 1897, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1897. England and Russia.

Thk concert of the BoWes of Europe i. at times supposed to be strained, but the two Powers most interested in the events now taking place in the East, England and Russia, have apparently had a clear and straightforward understanding. The appointment by the Czar of Oount Muravieff to the office of Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs took the official world by surprise, and a very well informed English paper thus explains the reason of his appointment. "When the Czar was in Copenhagen last year, overburdened with the responsibilities cast upon him by the death of Prince Lobanoff and the conflicting counsels of M. Shiskin and M. de Nelidoff, he held several conferences with Count Muravieff, then Russian Minister to the Danish Court. M. Muravieff was known to enjoy the confidence of the Dowagess Czarina, and the Emperor consequently asked him to put into writing the views he had orally expressed at these interviews. The result was an elaborate report on the European situation, which struck the Czar as possessing exceptional merits. The Emperor, however, is slow to form a definite opinion, and he took the document with him to Balmoral to study at leisure. Here he submitted it, in the first place to the Prince of Wales, to whose judgment he is known to attach a high importance. The Prince, in his turn, handed it to Lord Salisbury with the Czar's sanction ; and the latter, in an audience subsequently granted to him by the Czar, spoke of the report in terms of unhesitating and unqualified approval. It was largely in consequence of this exepression of opinion on the part of Lord Salisbury tbat the Czar subsequently selected Count Muravieff for the poat of Russian Foreign Minister