The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1912. AN APPALLING JEST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 200, 21 February 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1912. AN APPALLING JEST.

It is difficult to make a disturbance,' either national, international or merely local, happening within the memory of man in which Britain has not been either directly or indirectly interested or implicated. He who reads that Russia is dealing harshly with Persia over some matters at a distance, might fail to see what Britain has to do with the affairs of the ancient anuntry. It is a little. difficult to quite fathom the lately cabled contention of Sir Edward Grey that the Anglo-Russian agreement has produced good relations between the two countries, and kad preserved the authority of the Persian Government. The plain English of the Persian "crisis" is that two great nations are making a butcher'* shop of an antique lanß for commercial reasons, and that the Anglo-Russian agreement has prevented the expense of massing native troop* on, the Indian borders in •rder to push stray Russians baek into country which is not theirs, in which they have no right, and in which they are stirring np every kind of malice, uncharitableness, murder and sudden death ! known to "civilisation." Persia is a mere pawn in the great games of international [ grab. Britain is tho greatest business nation the world has, and her influence extenHs into places the ordinary man cannot find on the map. Britain said a while ago that if matters did not speedily improve in Persians having no opportunity of improving anything—it might be necessary to consider whether the immediate occupation of the harbors in the Gulf might not be imperative "in our commercial interests." Plain English again: "Wo have had commercial and strategio interest.? in the Gulf for over a hundred years. Wo have lighted the waters and buoyed the «hannels so that the gold we spend on doing a bigger trade than anybody else with Persia, shall not be wanted and our interest* not interfered with." At the back of the big naval gun that makes small nations shudder, i* the British shareholder. What matter* it thai a oountry may lose its independenee, that tw» covetous Powers should fight over

the demarcation of "spheres of influence," if the shareholder draws his "divvy"? It is, of course, comforting to know that at the moment when Eussian officials were lopping off the heads of Persian notables and were othenyse engaged in the butchering business, that Sir Edward

Grey calmly remarked from his well-pad-ded couch, "These are only British and Russian spheres in a sense which is in nowise derogatory to the influence and sovereignty of Persia." That is to say, that a man, or two men, or a crowd of men are perfectly justified in decapitating your grandfather and father, in living in your house, in taking your food, if they carefully agree that you are still the owner of the property. There is nothing quite so sinister, so cold, so brutal as the. "language of diplomacy." Diplomacy makes a-cockpit of a weak country and asks in a hurt voice what all the row is about, and if Persians can't stand a childish amusement like being poked with Russian bayonets. There is no doubt that the ancient country of Persia has brought death, desolation and the loss of true independence on itself by being unable, to pay its bills. There was a while ago a revival in Persia, the great land of Xerxes and of Cyrus. The people were waking up, becoming modernised, wanted to progress, to be more vitally national. Russia quarrelled about some mortgages and started to crush out the flickering national spirit. Britain folded its hands on its Bible, wished the Persians were not such dreadful heathens, couldn't'see any reason why they shouldn't be butchered, seeing they were not in sight, and went on making flannel petticoats for the heathens of somewhere else, who hate flannel petticoats anyhow. Britons at Home, in the cities, who gather the news of the world on the .top of a motor 'bus, simply fails to see why black troops from India should not pour into Persia if Christian British gentlemen in command say that it is a fair thing. Lord, Curzon, who'has a knack of seeing many things in their true perspective, but who, of course, must adopt the guarded tone of diplomacy, has said: "I have a sort of suspicion thret ~we are drifting into dark' and perilous paths in our Persian diplomacy." But even Lord Curzorf; could see that if a British bag of sugar were imperilled, or a Russian bale of leather was in jeopardy, that somebody ought to suffer. Why not the men and women and children of Persia? They can't defend themselves worth a cent nowadays, and there is no Xerxes in the neighborhood. When the spheres of in- ( fluence are nicely marked out with Persian blood and a sweet peace settles over , the land, and every Persian touches his hat to the marauding cossack, our dear i brothers will go to Persia and save the , heathens" souls. Civilisation is an appalling and gruesome jest.