"A DARK PALL."

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 205, 23 May 1908, Page 5

"A DARK PALL."

CRYPTIC STATEMENT BY LORD CDRZON. ANCLO-RUSSIAN TREATY, . VIGILANCE TO HOLD AND DEFEND. BY TELEGRAM!— PRESS ASSOCIATION— COPTRIGHI ' ■, ; London, May 21. Lord Curzon, ex-Viceroy of India, speaking at tho. Central Asian Society's dinner, said that rocorit .arrangement's, however successful, had not' doterinined Britain and Russia's future in Asia. Vigilance was required to' hold ' and defend what Britain hud gained. ' , '

There was a. dark, almost impenetrable, pall over India, " and," ho added, " wo'must do nothing t-o retard tho success of the great aim with . which Britain has been charged there." . ■ THE "NOVOE VREMYA" AND LORD CURZON. Lord Curzon. has lead the , English criticism of tho Anglo'-Eussian Agreement, and in doing bo ■ lias . come into conflict with the Russian journal' "Novoo Vremya," which in February, inado tho following interesting-statement:— "We might, from the point of view of Russian interests, make' some better founded. objections against the detail's of - our agreement with England. We do not make them. In its literal contents, that-Agreement relates only to the special interest of either. Power in threo Asiatic countries. Its meaning and importance, however, go far beyond the limits of those interests. It. signifies a total turning in the Anglo-Russian relations, which till now were often passing from concealed hostility to open antagonism.. Neither England .nor Russia were .deriving from that contest any ' advantage for themselves. ■ On tho contrary, both were only 'weakening .thomselves .by it to the satisfaction of third parties." i . "Wo have given up to England a paramount' influence in Afghanistan- and in the Persian Gulf. Those concessions were not for the benefit of Russia; but we'know how to sacrifice secondary interests for tho salce of the cstab-' lishment. in Asia, and afterwards- in Europe, of a new order of things based, not on rivalry, but on a harmonious understanding with England." ■ "We aro not acquiring by the' Convention any direct economical or' strategical advantage, and. therein is its weak point... Yet that 'disadvantage is in our eyes counter-balanced by tho possibility thus ! created of a co-operation of tho two greatest,-Empires, of the world,.: which have till now been exhausting themselves in a useless and fruitless struggle. Tho fruits of this agreement must clearly . 6how themselves in tho nearest future."