Petrograd, Jan. 5.
Petrograd, and indeed all political Russia, is following with intense interest rapidly developing phases in the struggle between the National Party and the pro-German element in the Government. It is a common-Place that a great many Germans hold positions in the Russian beaurocracy. The "evoe Vremya" has recently reminded us that about forty-five per cent. of the Council of Empire, and about thirty per cent. of the high Government officials, are Germans from the Baltic provinces. The greater part of Polish territory on the German frontier is controlled by German proprietors, and colonists hold most of the land, claiming dual nationality under the German law of 1870. There are instances even of Marshals de la Noblesse in these provinces, holding appointments under the Russian Government and at the same time proclaiming themselves German subjects. The Russian arms adorn their official communications with Petrograd, and their despatches to Berlin are on special paper bearing the German crest. We find now that in a number of cases the eldest sons of leading German families in the Baltic provinces are serving with German army, and the second son with the Russians.
Interest in this astonishing state of affairs increases with the dis covery that the most conservative section of the Russian government is composed of Germans and Germanophiles. Facts of this nature have, of course, become public property since the war began, and but small publicity was needed for the creation of a strong anti-German current of public opinion, so strong that the most rigid censorship has failed to suppress the critics.
This anti-German feeling reached its height when it became known that the German party was beginning to bring pressure on the Government with a view to the inauguration of peace negotiations. When the danger of this intrigue became known there were innumerable protests, and a petition presented to the Tsar by prominent merchants of Moscow may be taken as representative of the general public feeling of! distrust and resentment.
The Tsar acknowledged this petition with a personal assurance that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.