Peace-Compellers

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 38, 21 September 1905, Page 18

Peace-Compellers

Russia and Japan seem to have pretty nearly bled each other wMte. Both put a bold face upon their increasing exhaustion and valiantly TolufTotl to the very last. A sum of £200,000,000 is, for instance, a serious

item for a country like Japan, where the lowness of daily wages gives a high value to the pound sterling. Cultivation,, too, was seriously restricted by the death of so many workers and the absence of so many others at the front. And the feeding of the families of the ngjhting men was becoming a serious charge to the exchequer. The main causes— apart from its long succession of defeats and disasters— which made Russia keen for peace were foretold with remarkable accuracy by M, Bloch, a subject of' tne Tsar, in his ' Modern Weajpions and, Modern War,' published some years ago* Among the first he instances the low rates of wages in Russia, t<ho staallness of the savings of the people ; ' the disorganisation caused by the destruction of ordinary relation and by, the fall cf \alues,' and the increased price of the necessaries of life. ' All this,' he adds, ' leads to the conclusion that, nolens volens, Governments will be forced to take on themselves the care of feeding the families of those serving with the army. The result ( f. such an undertaking cannot be foreseen. If wo suppose that (io'vernments will be forced to interfere an the regulation of prices, and to support the population, we must ask : Will it be easy after the war to abandon this practice and reestablish the old order? Amd will not this moment of transition to the normal order of things be characterised by events similar to those which took place in France after the war of 187071 ? Tho destitute position of the population in time of war may be extremely dangerous to social order if war 'bo prolonged, and, in the opinion of every authoritative military writer, this is more than probable.' Most of these forecasts were verified in the case Df Russia.