GENIUS OF BRITISH

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 147, 18 December 1915, Page 14

GENIUS OF BRITISH

TRIBUTE OF RUSSIAN AUTHORS.

To the manifesto which a number of representative English authors addressed to the authors of Russia some months ago the Russians have replied in the shape of an address to the British people. This document is signed by many eminent writers, artists, and composers, and is a magnificent tribute to British genius. It runs as follows : —

''In these days, when an event of highest importance—the brotherly meeting of two nations at the -crossway of the universal fates and their union in the common strife for Europe's liberation—is sealed for ever in the memory of mankind with the blood of our valorous warriors, faithful sons of Britain and Russia —in these days you, our British brothers in the vast domain of art and thought, have addressed to us touching and perspicacious words of warm greeting, which have deeply penetrated our hearts and ■will never be forgotten. "You have told us how highly you esteem the work of our masters— Dostoievsky, Tolstoy, Tourgheneff—and how their spirit is near and dear to you. We are proud of this your acknowledgment and appreciation, for their fire is the holy fire of our family hearth. . But you have expressed, more than your respect for their personal deeds ; in their genius you have discerned features of our national character. You have penetrated the very substance of their creative force,- which we, too, look upon as a criterion of our faithfulness 'to the great ■ and living tradition. As essential properties or tendencies of the Russian soul, you have noted the deeply human feeling, the searching of the whole truth and equity, the neglecting of lower material values for the sake of spiritual values. We, indeed, believe that never shall Russia recognise as her own anything in the sphere of art and thought which does not bear witness to this spiritual thirst. . "But now how are we in turn to express our gratitude for all that we have received from the soul of your-,nation? How shall we gather up this gratitude, which is widely dispersed among us and keenly felt, even though net yet uttered —this_ feeling of affectionate recognition in which many Russian generations have grown up? The genius of your people revealed to us, with .ardent force and audacity, the infinite heights and depths of human nature, and all the secrets of the human heart through many representative spirits, and, above all/through him, the great searcher of hearts, Shakespeare.

"Your country, one of the oldest centres of European civilisation, your- people, who have taught freedom to all the world, have always been, and will continue 'to be, the objects of our study and admiration. We observe with joy the mystery of your unique and original national personality, which you have put at the service of all humanity, and all the secrets of your refined culture, which do not. however, alter the candid and majestic outlines of nature and the essential truth ot the human heart. We feel a complete solidarity with you when we see your inward independence which rejects the merely conventional forms, realising the perfect co-ordination of the commonwealth—when we discern your continual search for some higher and nobler aims than outward culture only, that search and pffort which can be. clearly perceived through the complex construction of your life as a whole. _ The very substance of your being is the principle of perfect harmony between man's will and his deeds, between thought and action. Now therefore, in the struggle of truth and justice against falsehood and inequity, you once more prove by your acts that'you stand in defence of the right and'of humanity and once more'von teach respect for the sanctity of freedom.

Tilled as we are with the sense that we are entering- upon a new epoch, we desire that on the termination of the military exploits of both the countries we may cpment our union in the closest of friendships. Let us hone that the union entered upon for better or worse will hnng about a ma-nysi-ded. active iriterchanije of our best 'enereies, and that this interchange, which opens to us unbounded horizons, will contribute to thp realisation of the" supreme ideals of universal good. Accept* this testimony of our gratitude and true friendship." *