The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 15, 1915. RUSSIA AND THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 236, 15 March 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 15, 1915. RUSSIA AND THE WAR.

One of the wojulcrs of the war is the imI mense influence it has exercised in uniting the formerly discordant elements i;i the internal life of Russia. Two remarkable testimonies to this fact are borne by visitors to St. Petersburg on the eve of the declaration of war, one of whom has recorded his experience in the Contemporary and the other in the Century Magazines. These reliable testimonies inform us that during liiu days immediately preceding this declaration, not only St. Petersburg, but every big manufa:;turing district of Russia was convulsed with a peasant revolt so serious and widespread that it brought her to the brink of civil war. One hundred and twenty thousand workmen were on strike, and they were not on strike for higher wages. Tn no single case did the men make a demand from or express a grievance to their masters. The only answer they returned when asked why they had struck was that they were dissatisfied with their lives, with the conditions of the working-man, and that they intended to disorganise the State until these conditions wore altered. St. Petersburg was in hourly dread of a far more serious revolution than that of 1905. The interference of the police and the calling out of the military had no effect whatever in checking the revolt. But as soon as the news was published that Ccermany hud determined on war the disturbance collapsed, and the workmen went instantly and quietly back te work. A few days afterwards the mounted police were heartily cheered l>v the crowd waiting to read the telegrams pasted up in the windows of the newspaper offices. As the mobolisation proceeded the streets were filled with enthusiastic volunteers inarching through the streets with a swinging gait, carrying their bundles and singing national hymns. The war with (fernmny bad con verted a. divided and discontented people into a solid phalanx of national heroism. 'J hat this was no mere temporary outburst of sentiment is shown by the fact that the "esprit de corps" animating tin; whole Russian nation lias deepened and intensified as tin- war ro!M on _ R „ s . si.i is as united to-day in her determination to crush Kaiserdum as the British Kmnire itself. There is no doubt that me result of the war will be a changed 3'-ns.s : a. The „1,1 age of an oppressed pea-anfry. 1,e1,[ ,]„„•„ ],,, arbitrary monarehism and aristocratic prejudice, !-j

pa-sin-.'. and will soon 1„. <Al . r . Thi , W!ll . lias made all Russians blond brothers and the brotherhood thus cemented bv a common struggh, for a larger freedom to be •"bared with Russia by all Europe canl'»t b- dissolved by any subsequent retrograde measures. No inclination for any such measures is likely to be entertamed cither by the Tsar or the nobles. r lhe prohibition of vodka in the army and the oiler of practical autonomy to l'»1a"d are signs that the rulers of Russia are irrevocably committed to the form and movement „f K i vi]lJ , t(| <,„,-,. own the same freedom they are demanding for others. One of the immediate ell'octs of the war on Russia ]„ us t ], c the enlargement of the I.nl>uhir 1 .n l >uhir representation of Hie Duma. If is tile peasants who arc constituting tlir flower of the ilSnssian army. It i 3 the peasants whoi are driving fiermany back in East I'ru--! sin, and the debt of gratitude of (he Empire to i!„. ,„...! W |„, i,., V1 , st(|()r | ]iv |( with a valour which is the pledge of eventual victory cannot possible he hj; nond. Then- is. indeed, no disposition towards ignoring it. On,, of the faets slowly but surely emerging from the struggle is the large-hearted popular sympathies of the Tsar. Hitherto he baa been restrained from giving full practical'

sway to those sympathies by the influence of the Barons. But that restraint will exist no longer. At the close of the war the Tsar will find himself at the head of a State much more like, that of England in its constitution than could have been foreseen in recent years. The Throne will he strengthened, not by increasing its height, but by broadening its view. Tin? advance o;' l.ussia practically guaranteed by the daily approaching fall of Turkey will be an irresistible call to give the peasants a freedom worthy of the victory they have done so much to win. We have no fear that Russia will rise to the opportunity now held before her of taking her place in the league which will make the tyrannies of the past impossible in the future to either Russia, Prussia, or any part of Kuropc. -A regenerated and elevated Russia will be no small compensation for the cost of this cruel but necessary war.