A TALK ABOUT RUSSIA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10, 5 September 1912, Page 7

A TALK ABOUT RUSSIA.

BY A DISTINGUISHED VISITOR

A delightful talk on Russia, as it is'tb-d ay, was given by the Hon. Maurice Baring, author, traveller, and war correspondent, at a New Zealand Club luncheon i tin Wellington on Aujgust 29th.■ Mr Baring qirickly showed that be is a man possessing shrewd observation, sound judgment, and a quaint'diumour. He is at present a ghe&t at Government House, and ho came with Lord Islington, who presided at the luncheon. Md Baring traced the influence pf the physical characteristics of the country, and its climate, upon the moulding of the Russian character, and in a few sentences gave a graphic picture of the country itself. Especially charming was his description of the melting of the snow and the coming of spring. When the snow melted, the whole country lay under water, gleaming like silver, and the coming of the spring came with a rush, covering the land with a carpet of lilies of the valley, and the trees with a vesture of dazzling green.

And then came tho summer, when the land became an ocean of golden corn. The life of tho Russian peasant was one perpetual struggle with the forces of Nature. He was resigned, active, and submissive—a blend of roughness and good nature, of tenderness and brutality—but he was no hypocrite. He had no prejudices of rank, caste, class, or race, and was essentially a democrat. He had no colour prejudice, cither, mixing with the Chinese, as lie did, on fraternal equality. He was charitable, and most indulgent of the faults of other people. Russia was a country where there was so little political liberty, and so much personal liberty. A public man could do any wickedness ho liked there, and not lie in bad odour. Mr Baring showed how powerful a hold religion' had on Russian peasant life, but while the office of the clergy was held to bo divine, the priests theimsolves were held in contempt. The educated middle class were however, nearly all free-thinkers, but, like all Russians, with a tendency to mysticism. The characteristics of the Russian people were humaneness, simplicity, and absence of pretension, and their hospitality was without its equal among any people. During the course of this address, Mr Baring told some good stories. Hero is one of them, illustrative of tho Conversatism of the Russian peasants. A Socialist came to a village to endeavour to convert the inhabitants. Ho thought lie could destroy the idea of authority by telling them there was no God; it would then follow logically that they bad no need to bother about the Czar or the policeman. In order to prove that there was no God, ho said lie would take from the church an image, ispit upon it, and then burn it, and no fire from heaven would come down. This ihe did, and he told the peasants that it proved that there was no God, for God had not killed him. And the peasants said, “God has not killed you, hut wo will”—and they did.