THE RUSSIAN NAVY.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1517, 29 January 1886, Page 3

THE RUSSIAN NAVY.

The Czar has a new hobby. Tired, apparently, of costly conquests in Central Asia, he is now tuning attention (says the Graphic) to the augmentation of his naval forces. No longer shall a scornful Bismarck ridicule the idea of the Bussian elephant fighting with the British whale. No longer shall Britannia boast that she rules the waves. Before many years elapse, the Vikings of the icy North will sail forth in scores of huge ironclad " dragons," and the British tar, shivering his timbers, may consider his occupation gone. Not only has a new armour-plated cruiser, constructed at a Eussian dockyard of Russian materials, been added to the Imperial Nary, but quite a dozen of other craft are ordered to be constructed, all for the benefit of England and for the peace of the world. As one of the illustrious officers who were present at the launch of the Admiral NakhimofF pleasantly remarked, "Engknd will never be Russia's true friend and ally until the Bussian fleet is equal to that of England." Now we know, therefore, the price that we are expected to pay for the love of our Northern admirer. We have merely to cease shipbuilding, and the Czar will make all possible haste to equalise matters on the ocean. It is to be feared our present rulers do not quite recognise the advantages of the bargain thus offered. In a spirit of downright " cu*sedness " they are laying down new monsters, hurrying forward those in course of completion, and in other ways largely increasing the fighting strength of the Navy. It follows, therefore, that as we build very much quicker than Russia, we shall be]farther ahead of her than ever by the time her new vessels are finished. Clearly M. Lessar must again be called in to experiment once more with bis patent "ethnographical" specific for the creation of friendly relations between England and Russia. It is true that, ever since he left London, he has been boasting about the clever way in which he " diddled" British diplomacy over the Zulfikar affair. Bat we repose such perfect confidence in his capacity for adapt)** himself to circumstances, that we make no doubt whatever he would not be a week in England before he flattered our wounded amour propre by representing himself as the diddled.