THE CZAR.

Taihape Daily Times, 20 November 1918, Page 5

THE CZAR.

HOW HE REFUSED A HUN PEACE

Sir George Buchanan, late British Ambassador at Petrograd, speaking at a dinner of the British.. Russia Club, said he was confident that in no distant future Russia will arise reborn from the ashes of her former self and take her rightful place among the free nations of the world.

.Begretting the callousness with which the news of the murder Of the Czar had, been received in some parts of this" .country,' Sir George, said his sufferings; in, captivity and his tragic death' will meet with, more, pity and sympathy at the bar of history than they■; halve, evoked hitherto. "He was not a blood-sucking tyrant such as the Bolsheviks have represented him, nor was he guilty of crimes such as they have committed in the name of liberty. "He never contemplated a separate peace with Germany, and up to the day of his abdication he was as determined to stand by his Allies as when, in the autumn of 1914, he made that diversion in East Prussia, which relieved the German pressure on Paris at the cost of. 200,000 of his best troops. Ho was always the true friend .and loyal ally of this country, and I know as a fact that, when in the summer of 1916 an attempt was made by the German Emperor to seduce by arguments based on mutual dynastic interests, he categorically refused.

"The news which has reached us of the attack on our Embassy, of the murder of that most gallant of sailors, Captain Cromie, aptly illustrates the reign of terror which exists there now." The Bolsheviks felt their end approaching and were playing their last cards and indulging in an orgy of massacre and spoliation.