DOES THE CZAR MEAN PEACE? AND, IF SO, DOES RUSSIA?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11934, 7 January 1901, Page 3

DOES THE CZAR MEAN PEACE? AND, IF SO, DOES RUSSIA?

(By Canon Rawxsley, author of . "Harvey Goodwin, Bishop of Carlisle,",etc., in the Leeds Mercury.) Any one who was present at the Moscow Coronation, and saw the splendid military pageant which conducted the Czar of all the Russias to the Kremlin, must have trembled for the future pacification of the world, as far as Russia was concerned. Conquest and : Force of Arms and Pride, of Power seemed written large upon every triumphal arch that spanned the Royal way. But at the entrance into the "Beautiful Place," as it is called, the Czar dismounted from his war-horse arid kneeled in the dust. At the Redeemer's Gate he left the whole of his armed thousands and went in bareheaded and alone with blessings of priest and bishop to his Royal Palace. When the Coronation procession went forward, there were prayers fervent and true that lie should govern the people committed to his charge in peace and righteousness, and ere he was allowed to enter the go.den doors of the sanctuary to take the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood' bf Christ, he was perforce obliged to unbuckle his sword and leave behind him all the symbols of his military power. . But 'it was neither- from triumphal procession of war, nor prayer for peace, nor unarmed entry into the Sanctuary of the Church of the Coronation, that one seemed, to gain an idea of what the real aim of the future Czar would be in matters of peace and war. It was from the face of "the ' young Emperor that one gleaned or thought one gleaned some presage of the future. It was a face that seemed to say,, "I am already too Oppressed with the weight of responsibility to care'to add to it the burden of war." It was not therefore surprising at all to hear that the Czar had issued a manifesto to the Kings of the earth urging international disarmament, and the claims of peace as better than war. But does the Czar mean peace?

We cannot do more than make a shrewd guess, and,' with such information as one can, get in Russia and elsewhere, the answer must be unequivocally in the affirmative. Does Russia mean peace? That is quite another matter, .The Czar is Dot Russia, and doubtless -■ a 6trong, if a small, war party in the immediate neighbourhood of the Throne who. ■would take up any gauntlet thrown down, and who believe that Russia, if she is ever to fulfil her destiny, must carve out by use of' the sword her free way to the ocean. ;It is, I know; a commonplace to say ofthe Czar that he is only a cipher—that it is not what the Czar desires, but what his counsellors demand that wins the day. I do not believe this. I have never seen a man so nearly deified, so apparently a god ort earth in the minds of his subjects, as was the Czar on his way to the coronation. , "It is fine weather for the occasion," a Russian said in my hearing to a soldier who was keeping the roadway. "How could God prevent His sun shining on our Little Father to-day?" was the soldier's answer.

"Depend upon it, the known wish of the Czar counts for much with the Russian multitude. -Plot and plan as the counsellors may in Manchuria,, on the Afghan boundary, or elsewhere; passionately desire, as the Imperialists and expansionists of. Russia do desire, a fleet and harbourage free-of ice; hate England as the Rusj sian statesman may, and as the l?te Mouravieff • made no secret of hating her; rejoice, as they assuredly do rejoice, if England seem for the nonce hampered or in dßSculty—it is quite certain that that young god on earth, the Czar of fioly Russia, has a constraining influence that is felt throughout his diplomatic service, and throughout his land; and the Czar is a man of peace. •It may be urged that the Peace manifesto was a sham.' It cannot be so urged if one remembers that during the past summer the Czar has issued a manifesto to follow it up to all his foreign ambassadors. The text of this second, or, to be more 'accurate, this third, manifesto, has not been published, but The Times correspondent at Vienna and the Morning Post correspondent at St; Petersburg have been able to see it, or enough of if to'be able to say that it is in its tone eminently pacific. 1 Those who know the state of Russian •finance can give us good reason for-the Czar's policy.' The Czar is fortunate in having a great Chancellor of the Exchequer, one De Witte by name, and .it is said that' he has advised his Majesty that if Russia went to war, she would, by the depreciation of her bonds,, notwithstanding accumulation of gold in her treasury, be bankrupt within a month. '.The fact is that Piussia cannot afford the expensive luxury of war. The Czar knows this, and apart from any higher motives which lie mav have, the Czar desires to hus- ; band resources, to do what lie can to get his country on a. sound financial footing, before he casts the die for wasteful war. ' We are told that the Czar is a man of few ideas, but that he is tenacious of these. His Finnish policy, his trans-Siberian railway, his hope for the Oxus and far western Steppes, these are ideas that are enough for a lifetime. It- is to these he clings. War is not one of his ideas. The prosperity and development of his vast territory without war is dear to the heart of the Czar. , War, of course, may come, may come perhaps at the bidding of France, perhaps at the suggestion of China; but it will not come, at least, such at- least is my belief, at the bidding of the CzAr. ,