HOME OPINION

Patea Mail, Volume XI, Issue 21, 1 June 1885, Page 4

HOME OPINION

England and Russia. Mr Grant Duff, presiding at a meeting in Doveton College, on Wednesday last, expressed Ins views on the situation. He said that be had fully hoped, and now believed, that we should not have war on Ibis occasion. There might be in the future, as there had been in the past; but when war was so near as it had seemed to be recently, it was delightful to see England spring to arms with the same alacrity as at the time of the Spanish Armada. There was never more persons averse to war than now and never bad those so strong an influence ou the Government; but at no time had we been so well prepared at all points. Hobart Pasha, speaking at a public meeting in Cheltenham on April 8 expressed the conviction that there would be war with Russia before long. As an old sailor, be declared the reports about the inefficiency of the navy to be inaenrnte. Lord Dufferin was the best man they could have to represent England in the present crisis, and he would maintain the honour of the country? RUSSIA AND AFGHANISTAN;. I am in a position, says a correspondent of the Standard , to give yon the words used by a German statesman—whose opinion is of the highest importance—on first hearing this morning that the Russians had committed an net of war on the Afghan frontier: “An Anglo-Russian war is now inevitable. England must declare war if she wants to keep India, and to maintain her prestige and influence in Asia. It is trne that the Czar and M. de Giers are inclined for peace, hence it is probable that General Komaroff acted on his own initiative and against the orders of St Petersburg; but such an incident might occur again, England must therefore require full amends from Russia, and convincing guarantees that the fighting shall not be repeated. If Russia refuses, England must declare war, as British prestige has been shaken by the news that 500 Afghans have been killed by tke Russians, which certainly will spread ver j quickly, The war will be localized in Asia, for all measures will be taken to protect Europe against being affected. But it is questionable if Gladstone is strong enough to declare war.”

RUSSIAN BREACH. OP FAITH.

The English people do not contemplate War with a light heart, says the Times, but they will hot shrink from the trial with a crav»n spirit, if the alternative be a disgraceful and ruinous submission. The question of delimiting the RussoAfghan frontier has given place to one more urgent and, at the same time, less open to confusion. Excuses, indeed, have been already devised for General Komaroff, with the assistance of some hints from M. Lessar, which the captor of Penjdeh has not taken the trouble to put forward on his own account. But the plain fact of “ an unprovoked aggression ’’ on the forces of our ally, the Ameer, with whom the Viceroy of India Las just entered into new and closer engagements, cannot be explained away. If we were content to pass over General Komaroff s attack on and defeat of the Afghans ns an “unhappy incident,” which, however, need not ruffle the placid and deliberate current of diplomatic intercourse, we should still have to reckon with the Afghans. What value can they set upon our alliance if among its first fruits are seen the victory of Russia and the destruction of a large body of Afghan troops in the field, at the very time when Lord Dufferin and the Ameer arc negotiating with M. de Giers ? What is likely to be the effect among our Indian fellow-subjects of the news of this fresh achievement of Russia, indisputably proved by the slaughter of hundreds of Afghans and the possession of the most important halting-place on the way to Herat ? We cannot, if we would, encounter the risks of a humiliating surrender to the sword of General Komaroff, drawn in defiance of the usages of war and the engagements of his superiors. It rests with Russia to purge herself of the offence by acts of adequate and conspicious reparation. The immediate recall of General Komaroff and the retirement of the Russian troops from all the positions lately occupied by them in anticipation of the judgment of the Delimitation Commissioners would, perhaps, avail to repair the mischief, so far as it is reparable, that has been done by rashness or the perfidy of her officers. At all events, We are bound by every obligation of honor and every dictate of expediency to insist that justice shall be done to the Afghans, not in their interest only, but in those of the people of India and of the British Empire. The duty imposed upon us is one not to be undertaken with levity, but it is one also which England is capable of fulfilling, an 1 from which she will not flinch until it be fulfilled.