War or Peace ?

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 181, 11 August 1888, Page 3

War or Peace ?

HOW TO MAINTAIN THE LATTER. AUSTRIA THE ONLY DANGER. The special Commissioner of the Pall Mall Gazette (Mr Stead), who has returned to London from a journalistic mission to the Court of St. Petersburg, has published in his journal his estimate of the European situation, written from a Russo-German point of view. A FAVORED .TOVRNALIST. In commenting editorially on his report the Gazette says its Commisioner has had opportunities hitherto enjoyed by no man, either official or unofficial, of prolonged and confidential intercourse with the responsible directors ot Russian policy. 11 His report is all the more welcome because it is Message of Peace. That which we have in past frequently asserted as a matter of inference and of belief as to the real nature of the policy of the Emperor of Russia in Europe and in Asia, our Commissioner is now in a position to confirm and to elucidate on the highest authority. It is this which distinguishes his report from St, Petersburg from the letters which we have hitherto published from his pen. It is true that he was received by Ministers at Paris and and by ambassadors at Berlin. But it was only at St. Petersburg, where he had an opportunity of discussing, as the non-commis-sioned but well-accredited representative of a great section of English opinion, all the ihases of English foreign politics with those n whose hands lie the actual issues of peace and war. What he has brought home is to England first uf all, but no less to Germany, a message of peace and of good-will from th« great empire which shares with us the sovereignty of Asia. So far as assurancescan go, and as deeds, which are more eloquent than words,[our Commissioner makes it clear that the pivot of European peace now lies at Gatchina."

AUSTRIA MUST HALT. Mr Stead writes :—Austria is the one point of danger in the European horizon, She is dangerous because she is dominated by a reckless oligarchy passionate for war, and confident that they can force the hai l of their allies if they but fire a single rifle a oss the Russian frontier. She is dangerous because her finances are so rickety and her political equilibrium so unsteady that she can with difficulty draw back from her present position after incurring so much expenditure without having anything to show for it. In her external policy she is dangerous because she has violated the spirit and the letter of the Berlin treaty in Bosnia, has practically annexed Servia, and has established her protege on the throne of Bulgaria, and is pursuing a policy of Drang nach Osten, which will inevitably bring her into collision with Russia, who imposes an irrevocable veto on the Austrian advance to Bosphorus. She is the one civilised Power that has broken the Berlin Treaty, moving eastward on a mission of absorption, if not of conquest. What she has done may not result in war, but if she goes on war is inevitable. Hence the condition of peace is an imperative Halt 1 addresed to Australia. THE ONLY SAFE ALLIANCE. “If Russia, Germany, and England hold together, the foreboding which haunted the mind of the late Emperor may never be realised. On the day on which the German army crossed the frontier, Frederick, then Crown Prince of Prussia, was observed to be oppressed with a profound gloom. Not a ray of exultant pride at the magnificent spectacle presented by the rush of the sons of the Fatherland to defend the Rhine lit up the stern sorrow of his face. An Englishman present congratulated him upon the certainty that within a few weeks the army under his orders would be before the gates of Paris. The Crown Prince replied, ‘ Yes, it will be so, although, perhaps, not so soon. We shall probably be beaten at first, but I know what is behind us,’ pointing to eastward, where along every railway at that moment, from the furthest frontiers, towards the threatened river. *ln the end our success is certain, and then !' His brow grew darker, and he spoke with deep emotion. * Then I can forsee that in the hour of our triumph it will be almost impossible to resist the demand for the rectification of frontiers. And if we take territory I can see well that it will mean a hundred years of war for Europe. How bodeful the words sound now, recalled over the grave of the clear sighted Prince, in whose eyes even the certainty of victory was eclipsed by gloom at the thought of the evil that would follow, If they are not to be fulfilled to the letter it will be by tae establishment of that firm and friendly agreement between the three Northern Empires, England, Germany, and Russia, by which alone the peace of Europe