The Situation in the Far East.

Manawatu Herald, 19 January 1904, Page 3

The Situation in the Far East.

Referring to the situation in the Far East, and the impression that the Czar has a passionate desire for general peace, the “ Pilot,” of November 14th, states:—“We should reflect that the autocracy of the Czar in Russia is very like the authority of the Pope in the Roman Church. It is supreme ; it is Unquestionable ; but there is a power in the Russian Empire though we cannot name it or point to it—against which no Czar in our day and no Pope at any time contends. We need not doubt the passionate desire of the Russian Empire for peace, but we may doubt whether it is the passion of a strong, consistent and commanding will or whether it is of an entirely different character, and known to be so to whatever constitutes the real Government of Russia. We are called upon to reflect that we owe the Etague Conference and its works to the Czar’s passion for peace, and so we should ; but not without the complimentary reflection that The Hague tribunal is but a piece of meaningless fancywork to the Japanese, the Chinese, and the people of Manchuria, who have known a good deal of appropriation and massacre in the inter* vals of the Czar’s passion for peace. Yet that he would gladly end that sort of thing we do not deny, nor even doubt. What we do deny is the existence of any reasonable ground of assurance that the personal shrinking of the Czar from bloodshed can be relied upon for averting war in the Far East. It will be averted, if at all, not by passion of any kind, but by calculation; the same slow Russian calculation which always inclines to keep the sword in sheath, but may as coolly resolve to bring on a war by provocation.’’