ARMENIA-A RUSSIAN VIEW.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1769, 1 June 1895, Page 4

ARMENIA-A RUSSIAN VIEW.

The following is a report of an interview with Madame Novikoff on the Armenian question. Of this lady it is said : '•For the last twenty years Madame Novikoff has occupied an international position that is as useful as it is unique. She has proved time and again that she was a much more useful and trustworthy exponent of Russian policy than any of the more regularly accredited Ambassadors. Since Madame Novikoff became informally plenipotentiary-voluntary of Russian views m the British capital there have been many changes of Ambassadors. Counts and Princes and Excellencies have come and gone; Madame Novikoff goes on for ever, and her information upon the probable course of Russian policy is more valuable than that of any other persons." Asked for some light upon the Russian attitude towards Arnienia.Madame Novikoff said : — When the question of the Slavs of the Balkans came to the front, the great complaint was that Russia wanted to do something, and your Press and your Ministers m those days trembled with indignation at the wickedness of my country. Now, to-day, when I read your papers, I iind that my country : is still as wicked as ever m the opinion of certain critics, but tins time for exactly the opposite reason. AYe were then denounced for our initiative ; we ' aro now denounced because we leave the

initiative to you. But m 1895 as m 1876 liussia will pursue her appointed course, and. that is to act m loyal accord with her' friends' -"and allies, to support thi'hv m any and every effective measure which is proposed for the healing of the groat sore m the East, but to refuse resolutely to take one step or say one word that would endanger European peace or expose us to the accusation of selfrseeking. " The open sore of the East ?— That is the ■ Eastern Question. The Eastern Question — that is not, as some of your people seem to imagine, who shall have Constantinople, for Constantinople is the one place m the whole East where the Turks are most useful. To the Turk m Constantinople we have no objection, nor is that the ■ Eastern Question. ■ The Eastern Question is . the Turk m Armenia, the Turk m Macedonia, the Turk m Anatolia. . How to' get the Turk from those provinces while retaining them m Constantinople} that is the true Eastern 7 Question, and I am delighted to think that England is beginning to appreciate" a truth to which for nearly 100. years she has resolutely closed her eyes. The Armenian question is only one branch of the other question. The massacres and all the horrors— which I. cannot even bear to read, knowing, as we do so well, that they are but the ordinary incidents of Turkish misrule— these are but, as it were; the acute inflammatory symptoms, of a disease which is always present m the Ottoman Empire, wherever, the .Turk exercises authority over the Christian races. The Eastern Question can only be settled or.c way, and that is by the progressive limitation of the power of the Turk. The true solution will be complete "when m all these Eastern lands there is not one tribe or one nationality which depends for the protection of its property, its life, its honour upon the will of Turkish pashas or the caprice of their Bashi-Bazouks." "But if anything is to be done somebody must begin, and does not the initiative naturally devolve upon Russia ?" "We thought so," replied Madame Novikoff, "and we acted upon our belief. We have spent £100,000,000 and sacrificed the lives of 100,000. 0f our bravest sons m order to solve the Eastern Question, by confining the Turk, as far as possible, to 'Constantinople, and while exacting effective guarantees for the deliverance of the Christian provinces. That was provided for m the Treaty of San Stefano, but, alas, Lord Beaconsfield thought otherwise, and as the result of the action of England and Austria the Turk was brought back to Macedonia, and the effective guarantee taken by Russia for the protection of the Armenians was destroyed, and as the price for the betrayal of the Christian cause, you took Cyprus. I wonder sometimes when you read the stories Of massacres m Armenia that Englishmen do notremember who it was that took thirty pieces of silver to betray innocent blood I" , " Oh, come, that is a little too hard, and, besides, it was not the policy of the English people, who, at the first chance, speedily deposed the Beacousfield Administration." "Ah, do not talk of these chinoiwies, which you cannot, expect us poor Russians to appreciate. All that we know is that England deprived Armenia of the guarantee of Russian protection ; and England took Cyprus, and although., as you say, Lord Beaconsfield has gone, I have not yet heard that you returned Cyprus to the Turk." "But Cyprus is only occupied as part of the Anglo-Turkish Convention." " Yes, yes, I know, that is the convention which is supposed to give a special; British guarantee for the good government of Armenia and the other Asiatic! dominions of the Sultan. It reads somewhat oddly, does it not, that 'convention m the light of the flames of the villages of your unfortunate proteges? It always seemed to me curious that if a man gets 6d by false pretences he is sent to prison, but if, by pretences, equally as false, you obtain a whole island — as, we ll — _» " Let bygones be bygones. What would you do now ?" " How can we let bygones be bygones, when the consequences of bygones are the facts of to-day ? The position which Russia held, under the Treaty of San Stefano, m Armenia was filched from her at the Berlin Congress, and surreptitiously conveyed by|Anglo-Turkish convention: to England. It is therefore not for you to ask me what is to be done, but for me to ask you what are you going to do m Armenia — issue commissions, draw protocols, make remonstrances? Now, come, is not all that what you English call, not m the language of diplomacy, simple twaddle ?" " But what would have us do ?" '•Only your duty. Russia did her duty m 1877-78 ; she fulfilled the responsibilities and obligations of her position as protector to the Slavs. lam waiting curiously to see. whether England will emulate the Russian example as the protector of the Armenians." " But if we did ?" ' " Then," replied Madame Novikoff, with emphasis, "you may rely upon it that Russia will not imitate the example of England m 1878. Russia is, and always has been, a loyal and resolute ally of every power that is' willing and ready to ct on behalf of the oppressed races of i the Ottoman Empire, but on this occasion the initiative rests with you, not with us. So far as you have gone, we have gone step by step, and so far as you go we shall go, but so iar as we see at present not one step further."