ENGLAND AND RUSSIA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 311, 6 April 1878, Page 20

ENGLAND AND RUSSIA.

TO THE EDITOR OE THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, — The resignation of Earl Derby has brought us face to face with a probable war in which England will have to engage, as all seems to point, singlehanded, and it would be well for us to look calmly and fairly to the position she will occupy in the opinion, of the civilized world, and try to find wnat justification she can'find for setting a torch to a conflagration that may, and most likely will, extend over the whole of Europe. It is history, that Turkey, after many years of cruel and oppressive Government of her Christian dependencies, put a coping-stone to her edifice of misrule by a series of monstrous and outrageous atrocities, wnich. shocked the feelings of Europe to such an extent that a Conference was demanded, the decision of w ]neh was, that Turkey should undertake certain radical administrative reforms, and give substantial guarantees for there being carried out, which she refusing to do, the late disastrous and the present apparently imminent war were the result. . . . Now, sir, I assert that this was the bide in the affairs of Europe that England should have seized, and this was where her statesmanship was found wanting. Had she stepped in and forced Turkey, with other Powers, to obey the decision of the Conference, and assured her that no matter what her extremity would be, she must not look for Lritisn interfercnce on her behalf, I am convinced Turkey would never have dared to defy a great I ower like Russia, and court almost certain annihilation. But no, through many official acts, and several notorious public utterances, she was led to believe that “ British interests” were synonymous with the * £ integrity of the Ottoman Empire,” and that in tho event of her need she would have the substantial support of England. Sir, it seems at this moment as if we are to be hurried into a dreadful war ; and for what ? merely the gratification of the oriental romance of a man, now in his second childhood, who would Jong ago have precipitated the step but for the power of public opinion and the moderation of the more thoughtful portion of his Cabinet. One by one. they have left and are leaving him to his suicidal policy, and to-day he is possessed of the power to carry it out, unless, as I firmly believe, the people will rise and unmistakably announce their intention of deterring him. We are daily and constantly being told that Russia secretly agitated for this war, and drove Turkey into it. I can only, in conclusion, point to Lord Derby’s latest utterance, that during the Conference the Czar was most anxious to avert it, and put up with more than auy other man iu bis position would have done, and I fearlessly maintain that the same conciliatory consistency has characterised the whole conduct of the war from the Russian side.—Yours, &c., Rax.