THE CZAR NO TRAITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 3349, 22 May 1918, Page 41

THE CZAR NO TRAITOR.

SIR GEORGE BUCHANAN ON HIS WEAKNESS. Sir George. Buchanan, late British Ambassador in Petrograd, in a speech in London on March 1, absolved the ex-Czar from the charge of disloyalty to the Allies. " During the concluding months of 1916 (he said) the political atmosphere was charged with electricity, but with the exception of tho party of the Extreme Right all parties in the country were united in condemnation of tho dark forces behind the Throne. Ho told the Czar that he had come to the parting of the ways, 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. Tho Czar chose the path of" reaction, and the revolution followed. He would like to take that occasion to correct a, report which had been widely circulated to "tho effect that the _ Emperor on the eve of his abdication was in favour of concluding a separate peace with Germany. There was not, he was convinced, a word of truth in the report. The Emperor, no doubt, had much to answer for, but he was not a traitor. He would never have betrayed/the cause of the Allies, and ho was always the true and loyal friend of this country.