The Daily News. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1914. A NEW RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 134, 30 October 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1914. A NEW RUSSIA.

Some fourteen years ago there resided in New Plymouth a young man wl# few could r uavo thought would rise to eminence. That young man was Harold Williams, son of the Rev, W. J. Williams, » well-known Methodist clergyman. Youn" Williams developed an extraordinary talent for assimilating languages, learning the Maori tongue whilst he was here, and familiarising himself with Norwegian and Gorman from tlie sailors aboard the coastal boats running to the Breakwater. Later Williams, seized with wander lust, travelled through the Islands, picking up most of the languages, and then studied in England, whero he secured his degree of Doctor of Literature. He subsequently settled i* Russia, where he studied the language, tlie customs and the life of the Russians, and incidentally became correspondent for the London Daily Chronicle. He soon came to bo regarded *3 _ an authority on the Slavonic tongues, and, indeed, on philology generally. Recently he wrote a work on Russia which was regarded by the highest critics as the finest and most illuminative work on Russia ever written. Dr. Williams has written a vigorous description of the amazing things that took place in Russia after Germany declared war. The country, he said, was unrecognisable. The haunting beauty of Russia suddenly shone forth radiantly from out of the heavy clouds of failure and defeat that had ridden it for so many years. The incrediblo happened, and it happened bocause of the war. Russia felt herself for once to be morally in the right. But let Dr. Williams speak for himself;"Her rulers did not want war. Until the last minute the Czar was swayed by the telegrams with which the Kaiser kept bombarding him day and night. Her people certainly did not want war. To all outward appearance Russia was utterly unprepared for war. She bad army reforms under way, but they were not to have been completed until next year. Her internal condition was deplorable. Some of the nationalities, Poles, Finns, Georgians and Jews had been embittered by the Governments 'astonishing reckless policy of oppression. Tlie educational system was in the way of being thoroughly demoralised by per- ■ petual police interference. Discontent was deep and strong. Tlie Duma was petulant, divided and helpless. Strike# were spreading all over tlie country, and there were serious riots in St. Petersburg. The best men in their country declared that the Government was plunging the country into a iresh and more terrible revolution. Russia seemed to be languishing in the grip of a mortal i malady, and no issue was visible. To go to war with the country in such a condition would have been, in the opinion of most, the height of folly. Then suddenly came tlie Austrian attack on Servia. Very few Russians wanted to fight for the sake of the distant Servians, who since the last Balkan war have not been popular nven in Russia. But when it gradually became clear that the attack on Servia was only a pretext, that the Austrian move was only the prelude to a German attack on ah apparently helpless and demoralised Russia, feeling charged in an instant. The general mobilisation immediately made all Russia realise the situation. Peasants, workmen, the strikers of the week before, tram conductors, clerks, cabmen, porters, students, teachers, lawyers, professors, all dropped their work

wLinuuu a murmur, una joineu wie ranKS with t'iie simple, unostentatious feeling Unit a great national effort, involving immense sacrifices, must be made. The drink shops were closed, All went to war soberly and sternly, expecting no easy victories, prepared for death or for a long, hard struggb. There was no sign of brutal compulsion. Everywhere the people are going well to the war, 'to die for our country,' as the peasants say. Rich and poor alike at this moment; Ivan, the hall'porter of the house I live in, lias been taken, but so has a blase millionaire acquaintance of mine. For the first time in liis reign the Czjir, cut off now from the German influence that egged him on continually ot ruinous reaction, came out on to the 'balcony to greet an immense throng of his people. While the bulk of the men have gone to the war, the women and the men who are left lichind are -busy day and night organising Red Cross societies, and societies for the relief of the families of the reservists. 'Personal cares aro laid aside. Everyone is eager to do his or her share of the na- | tion's work. And everyone is happy, I with a deep, strange happiness that has counted fully with the possibilities of death and disaster.'' 'Er Williams adds a word about the attitude of the Russians to England at the present moment. "Xothing," he says, "has aroused more enthusiasm in Russia (luring the last week than the English declaration of war against Germany. And the grounds for this enthusiasm are not merely military. It is not merely that the Russians hope that the English fleet will prevent a German squadron bombarding St. Petersburg. England occupies in Russia an altogether exceptional moral position. Rightly or "wrongly, the Russians tliink that ours is the most decent, the' most honorable nation in the

whole world. The Russians knew thai they were right in this struggle. But for their complete satisfaction, they longed to know that England realised they were right, and that was why they breathed a sigh of such infinite relief and gladness when they learned at last that England was with them. England's de- | claration of war has added immensely | to the moral strength of Russia. That England is with them at this terrible moment is for the Russian people health and soundness. It is one great step towards Russia's liberation and joy." Mr. Stephen Graham, another correspondent, only the other day stated that the Russians are beating the Germans because they are uplifted by an unwonted consciousness of the goodness and justness of their cause. Such a spirit must make for victory—and, what is of more consequence, a new and better Russia. War is a stern 'but often beneficent disciplinarian. Indeed, wo have Ruskin's authority for stating that war is the foundation of all high virtues and the faculties of men. "It is very strange to me to discover this," he said, "and very dreadful; but I saw it to he quite an undeniable fact. The common notion that peace and the virtues of civil fife flourish together I luund to be wholly untenable. Peace and the vices of civil life flourish together. We talk of peace and learning, of peace and plenty, of peace and civilisation; hut I found that those were not the words whicli the Muse of History coupled together: that on her lips the words were peace ani sensuality, peace and selfishness, peace and death. I found, in brief, that all great nations learned their truth ot word and strength of thought ill war; that they were nourished in war, and wasted by peace; taught by war, and deceived by peace; trained by war, and betrayed 'by peace: in a word, that they were horn in war and expired in peace." They seem extraordinary sayings for a man of such noble ideas and intellectual force. But even in our New Zealand we are beginning to undersiand them. The discipline of war, 'the sacrifices we are called upon to make, go to make us all better citizens. And if it is so in our own cases, how much more is it so with the Russians, who are just emerging from the dark into the light of civilisation, liberty and justice? Truly, the war with all its losses and its horrors is going to benefit Russia jw nothing else possibly could.