The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1885. RUSSIA AND ENGLAND.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 120, 25 April 1885, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1885. RUSSIA AND ENGLAND.

Our cable intelligence to-day is again of a most disquieting character, and we greatly fear that the next official announcement by the Premier to. the House will be that war has been declared. The cable statics that the. juncture is of such a serious and critical nature that he is not prepared to make any official announcement at present. The significance of this explanation is easily understood, and is more potent than words. The whole tenor of our cable news is that a declaration ot war is imminent, and averting it is m tho last degree improbable. In fact, Russia has no intention "f avoiding war, her sole object being 1 to force Great Britain into hostilities. There has been too much vacillation, too apparent a desire to secute peace at all risks, and the consequence is that Russia has grown defiant and aggressive. It will be a terrible and disastrous campaign, and it can Bcarcely be wondered that England hesitates to precipitate matters. But Russia will not be be p»o---piliate d; she desires to occupy Herat, and having other objects to achieve as well, she will force on then war. m spite of all parleying and negotiations England, uo doubt, reeoguises this fact but -Cesires to be m a position to say that she has tried every available negotiation before finally declaring that the question, of the Afghan frontier must be left to the decision of a rccource to arms. We would fain admit some other alternative as probable, or even possible, but viewed from all standpoints it is clearly apparent that the war cloud is already lowering on the horizon, and that the history of the campaign of 1854, though with a different battlefield, is about to be repeated. Acting on the instructions of their several AgentsGeucr&l the Australian Colonies are displaying' a laudable activity m their preparations for the crisis now impending, and which, forebodes danger the extent of which caunot be estimated or realized. We no longer hope that a peaceful settlement will be brought about — for that we consider now altogether impossible ;; but aIJ would be glad of a termination to the painful state of suspense which is now paralysing intercolonial , commerce, unsettling the money market, and causing everyone to wish to know the worst, however terrible it might be. What that worst will be can now be only a question of a tew days at most, and possibly only a few hours. With all the intervening period is one of the most intense anxiety, compared to which any intelligence of a definite character would be accepted as a positive relief.