THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN ENTENTE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12305, 28 August 1909, Page 4

THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN ENTENTE.

In the "Contemporary Review" Dr. I Diilon. presents us with his views upon! this, as upon many other questions of international politics, concerning which he appears to have access to private sources of information such as few other magazine writers ordinarily possess. The Russian understanding with Great Britain he describes as a stroke of policy for which M. Izvolsky is alone responsible, M. Stolypin, the Premier, never being asked his opinion upon the foreign policy of the empire. Before the agreement was arrived at the Czar studied the subject in all its aspects, and is represented as having been " moved by considerations which have not yet lost their force, but which are in fact weightier to-day than they were two years ago." A cloud of misapprehension has been dispelled on both sides, and "the results of the agreement, which has since been tested in Tibet, in the Middle East and in the Balkan Peninsula, have been excellent." As regards the future relation of Russia with Germany, Dr. Dillon remarks that, while it is true these two powers have lived in peace for over a hundred years, "it is equally true that a feeling of intense rivalry, bordering upon hatred, has long been growing between the Slav and the Teuton races, which will sooner or later find its full expression on the battlefield. The storm is sure to break. Germany and Russia are subjedb to the laws that govern political storms. They can neither enact nor evade them. Now, in the upshot of that desperate struggle Great Britain is neither more nor less interested than Russia is concerned with a future mighty conflict between Germany and Great Britain, In both cases the motives for co-operation are much the same." And they are strengthened by the fact that henceforth Germany and Austria-Hungary will present" a mutual front to Europe and the world, and they can conjointly set four millions of armed men in the field. Regarding the Anglo-Russian entente as an international necessity, Dr. Dillon believes that it will continue to be obI served in spirit as well as in letter^ and since this article was written the effusive and emphatic language of the Czar in his farewell message to the King and people of England adds considerable weight to the; doctor's contention. ■