Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, MAY 26, 1916. ANGLO=RUSSIAN AGREEMENT.

Nelson Evening Mail, 26 May 1916, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, MAY 26, 1916. ANGLO=RUSSIAN AGREEMENT.

THE reported agreement, between Britain and Russia is the logical sequel of the Anglo-Russian convention signed by Sir Edward Grey and M. Iszvclsky in ISO 7, by which all outstanding; disputes between! 'Britain and Russia were swept away, and Russia, in addition to being bound by alliance to Prance, was united ■with Britain also as a partner in the Triple Entente. It is our intention to give here some interesting- observations on the relationship between Britain and Russia made by the Telegraph a short time ago. It points out that by the convention Russia recognised the special interests of Britain in the Persian 'Gulf and received the recognition of her own interests in. North-western Persia, -while South-eastern Persia was allotted- to Britain as her sphere of influence. .As it was through that convention that Russia and Great Britain, after more than three-quarters' of a century of mutual antagonism, suspicion, and disj trust, came together, and remained toj gether as allies after Germany had precipitated Europe into war, so a further agreement became necessary in consequence of the new situation created by the war. Sir Edward Grey and M. Sazonoff must 'have reached a- comprehensive agreement of some sort covering the new situation, and, says the Telegraph, it is highly probable that both the Persian question and the question of the future of Constantinople have been arranged by this new convention. Whatever destiny may have been decided' upon for Constantinople itself, it cannot be doubted that at the close of a victorious war Russia will claim and will receive free access from the Black Sea. to the Mediterranean. It .may be that this provision has been embodied in the new Anglo-R.ussian agreement, and, I if so, it will be- one of the most mo- ; mentous changes to be experienced by Europe as a result of the war. ! Whether landlocked Russia, in lier long quest for an outlet to the sea, would expand to the south, to the east, or to the west, has been one : of the great i problems that kept all Europe guessing for nearly a hundred years. "Like some huge creature nosing around for water that was not covered with ice she approached the Bosphorus in 1854, and again in 1877. At the close of the Crimean War, and ' again at the close of the Russo-Turkish War, she was driven away by other European Powers in combination . Britain, who bad established her claim to supremacy in the Persian Gulf by three centuries of vigilant police-work, during which, she suppressed piracy, slavery, '■ and intertribal warfare among the people inhabiting the littoral, let it b& known that she would fight for her interests in that sultry region—which was a jumping-oft' place for a hostile naval expedition against India — if the necessity' should arrive. The Russian megatherium hesitated, and finally went off to Vladivostock. Germany encouraged Russia to expand eastwards instead of westwards, and to irrevocably to great adventures in a distant region, where she would be compelled ultimately—as the Prussians to deploy all her military resources.. And so it turned out. Russia became" involved in the war with Japan, to the intense delight of the Germans, who found that the great Power which Bismarck had always feared, and with which he had concluded his famous "reinsuring alliance," was so weakened that for a number of years she hardly counted as a possible enemy. But Russia regained her military strength "n the course of time. She has returned from her Far Eastern adventure to exert the pressure, of her huge weight in good earnest against Germany. When the.war is over there is little doubt, concludes the Telegraph, that it will find' Russia- in the Mediterranean at last. Her entrance into that sea will mean much to all the Mediterranean Powers.