RUSSIA IMPATIENT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 138, 7 December 1912, Page 19

RUSSIA IMPATIENT

ENTENTE NOT FRUITFUL WARNINGS TO HER ALLIES. | In one of the English papers to band ! by mail this week appeals a remarkable warning by Mr. A. L. Gullick, writing from St. Petersburg. His main point is the dissatisfaction of Russia with the results of the Entente. Since be wrote, however, the Balkan victories have created a new salvation. At the present moment, writes Mr. Qullick, there is a remarkable outburst of feeling on the part of the. Russian press against the action of England and France in their relations to the Triple Entente. Let me put tbe Russian case in general terms. The Russian asks himself the question as to whether the Triple Entente is for the equal benefit of the three Powers, or whether it is for the benefit of England and France, and to the detriment of Russia ; the latter view is the one expressed at tlie present moment. The Novoe Vremya, the Government organ, and thoroughly Anglophil, has at last lost patience, and in a leading article has warned, if not threatened, its colleagues. It points out that "it is to England's advantage to re-establish the power which she has lately lost at Constantinople, and that accordingly she— and also France — are most reluctant to put pressure on the Porte. Russia's interests are quite the reverse, but she is fettered by her agreement with the other two Powers. . . England thought more of her wounded pride at the time of the Bosnian occupation than she does now of defending the Serbs. . . Austria is anxious to keep open tbe road to Salonika through the Sanjak, and so may occupy it ; Russia will seek compensation in the direction of the Dardanelles ; but Eng land bends to Austria as she is in the i enemy's camp, and thunders at Russia because she is a 'friend.' " ENGLAND AND FRANCE I BLAMED. i In such terms do tho Russian hewspapers now attack England and France for their alleged use of the Entente for their own ends as opposed to those of Russia. The Novoe Vremya aeks, "Is the Alliance with France a legend?" "During the Japanese War,"' it continued, "the Alliance was ehown not to extend to the Far East, and now i it is made clear that Russia obtains no support in tho Near East. . . As for England, the only effect of our Entente with her has been that Russia has been tied hand and foot in Persia. i ... Russia has her greatest interests in Europe, and it is there that she needs her friends' help. . . . She is treated like a secondary Power." The newspaper concludes by the threatening ! remark that < "Russia has a huge army, i and that if it is changed from one scale of the balance to tho other it will be ill for 'someone.' " "We have the right of choice of friends, and we only wait i for men of talent to uee this choice ac a weapon." This is not the clap-trap of a paper trying to achieve popularity, but the j carefully chosen words of far and away the moat important and official Conservath c Russian organ, and one which, has put all its influence on the side of tho Entente. But to us who move much in Ritß3ian society this growing imfatienco with Russian diplomacy hae been marked for a long time. Up to the present the diplomats have been allowed a free hand, but this idea that Russia has been the dupe of England and France has been growing stronger and stronger among the Russians who interest themselves iv politics, and has nearly reached the breaking-p6int, and when it does no one can cay what may be the r«mlt. The power will be wrested from the diplomats, and Russian policy will be dictated by the nobles and tile army. PAN-SLAVISM. And it is there that is found the spirit of the Slav, and under their guidance Russia would make the Pan-Slavic cause a crusade. Therein lies the real danger, which is not all understood by people who take Russian policy from the lips of Sazonoff. A burst of' feeling will sweep him away, and that may easily be brought about. A little more "presumption" on the part of Austria, a defeat of the Balkan League, might do it. Furthermore, Sazonoff may be foiced to resign at any moment, and Count Witto take his place. ' The public opinion in Russia is not, as in England, of the masses, but is not, therefore, to be despised ; it is the pub-

Ho opinion of the classes. A grow ing impatieiicf with their diplomacy, a growing confidence in their army. 'and. above all. their enthusiasm for the cause of the Sla\s against the Turks, their perpetual enemy, may at any moment force the Emperor's- hand, and send the Russian army to fight. Leaving for a moment the diplomats on tho one band and their opponents of influence on the other, let us consider tbe question from the point of view of the masses. They regard war with the Turks as their heritage. In the disastrous Japanese war they had no enthusiasm ; it was used as a lever for social agitation, as an opportunity for revolution. But a war with the Turks ' It is in the very blood of every Russian, and shows the united nation righting at its best. Diplomacy dragged the people to the war with Japan, but it will be the people who will drag diplomacy to war with Turkey. That the clergy, whose influence is so great, would welcome a war with the Mohammedans needs no explanation ; it is their dream. So we have the whole nation unanimous in its desire to fight. It is a force that no diplomdcy cart easily combat. Its victory is not assured, but must be reckoned with. The first sign would be the substitution of Count Witte for Bassonoff — he is tho strong man of Russia, the "talented" man to whom the paper quoted refers. Sir Edward Grey has conferred at length with Sazonoff, but he should talk with the non-official peoplo of RusEia in order to understand the danger. Lot him not be blind to its imminence, but be prepared for a sudden change of control, and for the moment when Holy Russia goes forth to war.