WAR AND PEACE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11367, 7 September 1897, Page 2

WAR AND PEACE.

. TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —Your latest correspondent on this subject witnessed the Record Reign celebrations in Loudon. Necessarily there was nothing “ barbaric ” in the display to those who delight in the glorification of sheer brute force ; but just as necessarily those who have eyes to behold the terrible want and wretchedness on which the magnificence of power is erected feel the shame of the incongruity. Within the last lew weeks Loudon has been described by other Jubilee visitors as “ heaven ” and as “ hell.” The Jubilee and the recent barely - concealed hostility of the German Emperor are widely, accepted as cause and consequence, and the same significance is attached to the visit of the French President to the Russian capital; Alsaco - Lorraine agreements havingwavered for many years, find in the English display a fitting motive for culmination. The Oriental traveller, Mr Haskett Smith, narrates the operations of Russia in Armenia. He states that secret officers are engaged in creating- religious outbursts among the Armenians, with the view of provoking the vengeance of the Sultan of Turkey. Fearful as that yen-o-eance is.it is but a section of the great tragedy in which commercial Europe must share the blame. The Lyttelton Times gave a powerful exposition of the silver question—as, it affects India —quite recently. Sir Speed must have failed to notice the article, which very succinctly traced the connection between bimetallism and Indian troubles ,as he appears to have failed in observing the correspondence preceding the letter which he criticises. It may be remarked that one may refer to silver without advocating either bimetallism or monometallism. The sorrows of the world lie too deep for either remedy.—l am, &c., WILHELMINA SEERIFF-BAIN.