CZAR'S LETTERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 66, 19 March 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

CZAR'S LETTERS

•THE confidential correspondence 1 of a mother and son over a period of 40 years'is sure, if the correspondents are highly-placed political figures, to contain many personal confidences of interest, and."The Letters of Czar Nicholas and Empress Marie" (Nicholson and Watson) are no exception to this rule. "It is unthinkable," -writes Mr. R. H. Bruce Lockhart in a preface, "that, if til® autocracy had remained in Russia, these letters should ever have been seen by other eyes than those of the two Imperial correspondents. It is a sign of the distance Russia, hag travelled during the last decade that these letters have now been released for publication." The correspondence, which has been edited by Mr. Edward J. Bing, begins with letters written in the young

Prince's early boyhood, and procleeds through hie whole life, until the last of the letters are pathetic messages interchanged between the Royal prisoners in two widely separated camps in the hands of the revolutionaries. The most interesting periods of the correspondence are the period of the Russo-Japanese war and the Revolution of 1905, and the Great War. The Czar's attitude towards the revolutionary leaders in 1905 was reactionary in the extrema. "Alexei Obolensky with some others has pro- | posed universal suffrage," he writes, ' but I acting on my firm convictions, declined to a°Teo to it. God knows how far people will go with their fantastic ideas." And again, speaking of the Baltic provinces, "Many seditious bands have been dispersed, their homes and property burnt. Terror must be met by terror." When Gagarin, president of the University of Engineering, made a public protest against the action of the police, "I gave Stolypin orders to dismiss him forthwith and put him on trial together with his professors and the members of the Academic Council." There are fewer letters in the last 10 years. An interesting reference is to the fact that at least twice Queen Alexandra telegraphed war intelligence of some importance direct to her sister, the Dowager Empress Marie. One wonders what channels of communication were used. The letters are very human documents, and even if their political importance and interest is taken into account, a reader may be excused if he feels at times that he is intruding unjustifiably on a private domestic scene. The deep and sincere affection of the mother and son for each other, their unfailing courtesy even when they differ in principle (which is not often) and the deep piety which is always evident, form a vivid and intimate personal background to the political scenes which are illuminated in these letters.