19th June.
Taz telegrams published on Saturday and this morning, received from Reuter and from our own correspondents, are vausually full of interest, and we are now beginning to realise some vf the results of the tempo ary eclipse of Russia as a Great Power. The great advantage to the peace of Europe of the Franco-Russian Alliance has been that 1 acted asacurb on the ambition of the: German Emperor. It is true that the Kaiser has stated and repeated from time to time that no one is more devoted to the maintenance of peace in Europe than he is; but this devotion to peace, and we do not impugn its genuineness, has undoubtedly been fortified by the knowledge that Germany lay between wwo great allied Powers, and only in the last extremity could she risk offending them, Japan has relieved the pressure on Germany's eastern frontier, and the latter has hardly realised yet that while France has temporarily lost the possible assistance of Russia, she has gained a new and fast friend in Great Britain, Disquieting as Germany's action in Moroce> is, we do not believe for a moment thay it will result in a war between France and Germany. The statesmen Eurove will not allow a European war if ican be by any means avoided. If the Kaiser did not realise this, he would probably not have given all the provocation he has given to France and England; and it is very serious 8 in to prompt the Sultan revocation to these two Powers and
morocco to, ask for an international conference, when these three Powers, as we showed on Saturday, have already made binding and permanent agreements between themselves with regard to Morocco, As long as Englund is firm, und we confess that there is not very much reason to feel convinced that Lord Lansdowne will be firm, there cannot be an international conference, for Aus' Hungary, Italy, and the United States, although the two former of these Powers are more or less loosely bound to Germany by the Triple Alliance, have only consented to join an international conference if England, France, and Spain accept the invitation, IfEngland and France accept the invitation at last—and M. Rouvier seems to be weakening,—it will only be to "save the face" of the Kaiser, who is offended that the three Western Powers of Europe settled the Morocco question without inviting his assistance; and the maintenance of the peace of Europe may sion, although it is an axiom that be thought to be worth that conces-concessions of that kind are seldom final, but are only the prelude to farther demands.
Meanwhile, it seems almost certain that we shall soon see the end of the war between Japan and Russia. The annihilation of Russia's naval power by Admiral Togo was followed immediately by Russia's characteristic "bluffing." At the very time when the egregious Count Cassini declared publicly that Russia wou'd continue the war-to the bitter end, he must have had in his pos-ossian Japan's terms, and the knowledge that Russia was ready to treat; for President Roozevelt would not have committed himself as he did, without knowing that Russia felt that she had no more cards in her hand. Russia may create a new fleet, for that is a mere question of money, but she cannot create in any reasonable time the officers and men to handle and fight the ships, and she cannot again be great power on the Pacific without a fleet that can fight.
The progress of the revolution in Russia has no doubt contributed very the Russian bureateracy' bad' aot largely to the desire for peace.
collapsed so {piteously, and the Russian people had been united in the determination to continue hostilities, President Roosevelt's suggestion would never have been made. But the bold and independent action of the Congress of Zerstvois's shows that Russia is in thezthroes of what is really a revolution; a peaceable one, if the Czar is wise, a sanguinary one, if his decision to-day is unfavourable. The Zemstvo, or Provincial Councils, are not composed of Socialists or Anarchists; they represent the whole people, the provincial aristocracy and the peasantry alike, and they are supported by the municipal ities in the great cities. They are determined that the bureaucracy mirist be reformed, it must go, and it remains for the Czar to decide whether he will go with it. He will doubtless throw it over as he has already thrown over his sailor uncle, the Grand-Duke Alexis.
It is surely time that the Maritime Powers sent orders to their men-of-war to sink the Petersburg and Smolensk, now the Dnieper and Rion, wherever found, us pirates. The sinking of the St. Hilda and Tetartos, among others, the attack o2 the Cilurnum, and the sinking of the Oldhamia, are acts of piracy, and nothing less. Such sheer, wanton destruction of property xt sex, neutral property whose destruction can do no possible good to Russia- or harm to Japan, is mere barbarism, the act of uniformed ruffians io the possession for the time of the neces- gre sary brute force. The cise ut the Tetartos is the worst, for she was actually bound to a neutral port. If the Dnieper and Rion are allowed to go through the Suez Canal and reach Odessa in safety, Mr. Balfour had batter at once make Dogberry his Foreign Minister, and Verges his First Lord of the Admiralty.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.