RUSSIA AND ENGLAND.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 15, 16 June 1885, Page 2

RUSSIA AND ENGLAND.

According to current report, an attempt waß recently mado by a Russian agent to negotiate a*private loan ot two millions sterling m London with a syndicate of London bankers ; but the application was refused by the syndicate, as well as by Messrs Bothschild, who were also applied to by the agent. The war scare has brought so vivid a light to bear . upon Russia's financial position, that the most unsophisticated must have come to the conclusion that bankruptcy i| , staring that country m the face. "Wifflf the more peaceful outlook, and -with' th»' strenuous efforts of the "Berlin gang to rig the market, Eussian honds will pro* bably recover, but I hope iliat the British investor will sjive them a wide berth. Apart from the probability that the same scare will repo.it itselt at no distant period, m a more ueuie torm, and with a more fatal issue, the financial aspect is mno way changed. There is; however, , another side to the question. The price of Eussian bonds, before the war scare, was a fictitious one, caused by the Ber lin financiers bringing them np, with ».. view to some scheme of unification! Even when, therefore, the scare is entire* ly over, it is not likely that the price will he maintained at this high level.— Truth.

A correspondent of the Standard writing from St. Petersburg on the.Eui,-ao-Afghan outbreak, says : — " The !gra eral public, even here m the capital; iiai not an inkling of what has happened, and thus there is before me the extraordinary spectacle of a nation of ninety million people on the very brink of a calamitous war, and, with the exception of a mere handful of people, all utterly ignorant of the fact."

Those who imagine the English fleet would be useless m the case of war breaking out, should read the opinion of a well-informed military organ, which m the course of a long article says: — "If the British fleet is then m right positions, uot a single Russian cruiser will be able to leave the Baltic. As to the Black Sea, means will be found for effecting a complete blockade, and if some Russian privateers should succeed m reaching the open sea they would not long escape hor Majesty's swift and powerful iron-clad cruisers. Thus it appears that for naval warfare all the chances are m favour of. England, who being herself unapproachable, can hit her enemy most effectively. Held fast by England's giant fleet, Russia would bleed to death before, she could reach ludia. ' . •■•.-..;:> .;