RUSSIA'S DOWNFALL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 113, 17 May 1918, Page 3

RUSSIA'S DOWNFALL.

SIR G. BUCHANAN AND THE CZAR. Sir Georpe Buchanan. (British Ambassador to Russia), was the guest at the Piccadilly Hotel of the United Russia Societies Association. Sir George Buchanan said it \va>; a great consolation to him to hear that his work had been appreciated by hif. fellow -countrvmen. Perhaps some day he might say all he had reen in .1-etro-grad It was such a sad tale that_ H almost broke his heart to think ot it. Durin.r the concluding months ol lyto the political atmosphere was charged with electricity, but, with the exception of the party of the Extreme Right, all parties in the country were united uj condemnation of the dark forces behind the. Throne. He told the Czar, that the Army and the people were one,_ that he. had "come to the parting ot the wavs and that he 'had to make a. choice between two paths, one of which would lead to victory and the other to revolution and disaster. The Czar chose the path of reaction, and the revolution followed, and was fraught at the time with serious consequences to the cause of the Allies. It was always risky for a great country to make a plunge from extreme autocracy to extreme democ--acy. A report had been widely circulated, he believed—at least he had read it in manv accounts of the Russian Revolution—to the effect that the Emperor on the eve of his abdication contemplated concluding a separate peace with Germany. There was not, he was convinced, a word of truth in that report. The Emperor, no doubt, had much to answer for. He had to bear the responsibility for all the consequences of "the maladministration of tne men whom he chwe as his Ministers. He was not a traitor, and he never would have betraved the cause of the Allies, and he was always the true and loyal friend of this country. (Cheers).