A RUSSIAN STATESMAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6977, 15 December 1900, Page 1

A RUSSIAN STATESMAN.

To Fame Through Disobedience. (Cassell's Saturday Journal.) A member of the Russian Imperial Cabinet, Monsieur de Witte, Minister of Finance, is one of the mosb powerful and im^ portant men in the Empire. Highly esteemed and trusted by the Emperor, he is inspected and honoured by the representatives of foreign Powers. Yet Monsieur de Witte is of humble origin— a fact which, dn Russia, where every circumstance favours the man of noble blood; above the plebeian, has counted! for muoh, against him. Monsieur de Witte, in his early life, after an imperfect education, was made stationmaster at a small and unimportant railway station in Southern Russia. The war between Russia and Turkey arose, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers had to be transported into Roumania and Bulgaria. One day Monsieur de Witte, in his station, received telegraphic instructions to make certain arrangements in connection with the passage of these troops along the line. In Russia, orders from a high source, connected with ihe affairs of the Government, are terrible things, not to be disobeyed. But this young man saw that obedience in the present instance would create confusion, if not positive disaster. His superiors had told him to do the wrong thing. He ventured to violate his instructions, and to do the right thing. The chief director of the railway sum* moned the young man before horn, and asked why he had presumed to disobey his telegraphic orders in, a matter of such vast con- 1 sequence. Monsieur de Witte told" him why, and convinced him that he, the station-mas-ter, was right, and that the orders were wrong. Instead) of removing or punishing him, the chief of the railway advanced him. m Afterwards, the railway magnate, Monsieur Wichnegradski, was called to St Petersburg to assume a place in the Imperial Cabinet. Remembering the man who had so successfully disobeyed, he sent for him and gave him a post under hint, After that Monsieur de Witte's advancement was rapid, and he rose to occupy one of the highest official positions in the Empire— that of minister of Finance.