RUSSIA AND GREAT BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1915, Page 12 (Supplement)

RUSSIA AND GREAT BRITAIN.

TRIBUTE FROM OUR ALLY. London, Sept. 24. Towards the end of last year the leading British authors addressed a manifesto to their colleagues in Russia attesting their sympathy and support. A reply has been received from Russia in the form of an address to the British people, signed by the leading men of letters, artists, and composers. It reads: "In these days when an event of highest importance—the brotherly meeting of our two nations at the erossway of the universal, fates and their union in the common strife of Europe's liberasealed for ever in tlje memory of mankind, with the.blood ofSjir valorous warriors, faithful sons of Britain and Russia—in these days you, our British brothers in the vast domain of Art and Thought, have addressed to us touching and perspicacious words of. warm greeting, which have deeply penetrated our hearts, and will never be forgotten. "You have told us how nighly you esteem the work of our masters —Dostoievsky, Tolstoy, Turgheneff—and how their Bpirit is near and dear to you. We are proud of this, your acknowledgment and appreciation, for their fire is the holy fire of our family-hearth. But you have expressed more than your respect for their personal deeds; in their genius you have discerned features of our national character. You have penetrated the very substance of their creative force, which we, too, look upon as a criterion of our faithfulness to the great and living .tradition. "How are we in turn to express our gratitude for all that we have received from the soul of your nation? How shall we gather up this gratitude, which is widely dispersed among us and keenly felt, even though not yet uttered —this feeling of affectionate - recognition in which many Russian generations have grown dp? The genius of your people revealed to us, with ardent force and audacity, the infinite heights and depths of the human' heart through many representative spirits, and above all, through him, the greatest searcher of heart, Shakespeare. "Your country, one of the oldest centres of European civilisation, your people, who have taught freedom to all the world, have always been and will continue to be the object of our study and admiration. We observe with joy the mystery of your unique and original national personality, which you have put at the service of all humanity, and all the secrets of your refined culture, which do not, however, alter the candid and majestic outlines of nature, and the essential truth of the human heart. "We feel a complete solidarity with you when we see your inward independence which rejects the merely conventional forms, realising the perfect coordination of the commonwealth—when we discern your continual search for some higher and noWer aims than outward culture, only that search and effort which can be clearly perceived through the complex construction of your life as a whole. The very substance'of your bein£ is the principle of perfect harmony between man's will and his deed, between thought and action. Now, therefore, in the struggle of truth and justice against falsehood and iniquity you once more prove by your acts that you stand in defence of the right and of humanity, and once more you teach respect for the sanctity of freedom, "Filled as wc are with the sense that we are entering upon a new epoch, we desire that on the termination of the military exploits of both the countries we may cement our union in the closest of friendships. Let us hope that the union, entered upon for better or worse, will bring about a many-sided active interchange of our best energies, and that this interchange, which opens to us unbounded horizons, will contribute to the realisation of the supreme ideals of universal good. Accept this testimony of our gratitude and true friendship."