SOME PRESS OPINIONS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11877, 26 April 1904, Page 8

SOME PRESS OPINIONS.

There is a. terrible future before Russia, but the Empire will stand firm.—"Novoye Vresmya," St. Petersburg. Japan has hitherto known only the generosity and confidence of Russia. Hencerf forward she must know her wrath and her power.; for Russia's dignity is insulted, and she nadaxsUuids now the mistake she made i» taking treacherous savages for a civilised Power.—"Viedomosti," Moscow. Russian soldiers bear hardships belter than any European troops, and the Siberian forces are even harder than the rest of the Russian army, but in St. Petersburg it is well known that the Siberian forces stand far below the European army as regards tactics, rapidity of movement and " marksmanship.—"Cras/ St. Petersburg. France, who knows her. duty, will remain faithful to Russia, who represents, in this conflict which she has not herself provoked, the interests of Europe. The victory of Japan would in a short time be the occasion of new and terrible conflicts. What would then become of our Indo-Chinese possefsioits?—-M. Louis Barthou, in "La Rt-publique Francaise," Paris. "- The world will hope that the conflict will be mercifully brief, clearly ■ decisive, and scrupulously confined to the original combatants. The Powers should quarantine tlie war, like the deadly disease it is, and confine it within narrow quarters while it takes its destructive coarse.—''World," New York. In official circles in St. Petersburg the cry is against the United States. There the English bogey has been dropped and tlie American peril substituted. No secret whatever is made of the opinion held there that tlie United States Government at the most critical moment has placed a series of impediments upon the Russian political road.—''New York Herald." It is astonishing to watch the attitude of the populace in Japan. They suppress every expression of feverish excitement which doubtless possesses them. Fathers part from their sons quite coolly, and mothers say "Good-bye" without tears or visible emotion. Yet there is a general determination, is necessary, to shed tne last drop of blood for Japan.—"Lokalanzeiger," Berlin. The attitude of Germany continues to be the maintenance of the most complete and straightforward neutrality, which, so far as Russia is concerned, is very materially facilitated by that, as has frequently enough been - 'declared in Germany, no real incompatibility of interest exists between Germany and Russia. People have more important business than to pu__le their brains over the .question of Wei-hat-wei.—"Cologne Gazette." All eyes are fixed anxiously on England and France, in whose hands rests the peace or war of the whole world. The former is the most formidable antagonist of the Muscovite mammoth in the_ struggle for tlie conquest of Asia. The latter is the interested ally of Russia and her principal -.banker. Should one or the other of these , ! „" * ; Powers move to the assistance of one of ■ * the belligerents, ihe conflict would inevitably become universal, and it is not possible to foresee the greatness of the disaster nor the tremendous changes in the political map of the world. It is, thera-

fore, with anxiety that.we read the more Or le*s n-ticVnt- declarations made in the Cabinet* of London and and the descriptions of incidents at Wei-hai-wci and Shanhaikwan.—'iMattino," Naples. Russia has no friends abroad, except, perliaps, the German Emperor, who has sent the Tnar tbe historic tin skull-cap. of the old Prussian Guards a* an expression of his sympathy. But at home ehe may win back the goodwill of all those whom the autocratic' system alienated; and the sore trouble imposed 'upon Russiaby her land-grabbing may have the salutary consequence that the Russian people, ran see the coming of liberty, and who knows if not of a Constitutional regime?— "Die Zeit," Vienna.