The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-15
THE SICK MANS NEW NURSE.

AS one recalls or reads the history Of
the relations of England and Russia
during the last fifty years the grim
comes apparent. Flo fifty years their
statesmen have been playing their dip
lomatic games, once eliminating in
warfare, and in the end Russia wins.
Turkey has been the stake. and it is
in the claws of the Russian bear. The
sultan no longer bows obediently to
Downing. street. He has turned his
face and bowed his head to his north.
ern neighbor and ignores English de-
mands with a GOODNESS and assurance
that stir the lion to impotent rage.
English ministries have always rep
resented commercial England, and
bent foreign policies to serve it's inter-
ests, not always mindful of the means
employed. Rivals, real or fancied, have
been thwarted wherever possible. Our
colonies had a bitter experience with
this spirit. 1t was this feeling of jeal-
busy that was at the bottom of the
OSHAAA "a GIS1o1u W 6uSSld, SLOWn
in the solicitude of the former for Tur-
key and her guardianship of Europe's
sick man." Russia's outlet to the
ocean through the Baltic is ice-locked
dangerous when open. The Bosphorus
was her natural channel Of access to
the Mediterranean and the world. For
fifty years Russia has steadily, per-
s~istently sought to control this south
ern door of the empire, and for fifty
years England has as persistently
schemed to prevent it. And for all
that time and now Russia has been
and is the bogy with which English
constituencies have been periodically
frightened.
Baked by the result of the Crimean
war, Russia has pushed her conquest
east, and England has met it by some
counter 10Y on the northern frontiers
Of India or Afghanistan. To facilitate
communications, as much to aid in the
game played with Russia in the East
as for commercial reasons, England Sc
cured control of the Suez canal and
occupied Egypt. When, in 1878, Russia
had gained her in the treaty
of San Stefano, Disraeli procured, in
the treaty Of Berlin, the defeat of Rus
STA and took Cyprus as England's re-
ward. Thwarted but not subdued,
Russia has turned from fighting the
Turk to cajoling him and craftily in
gratiating herself into his confidence.
How successfully this work has been
accomplished was suddenly revealed
when the Armenian revolt and massa-
cres stirred England to demand the
realization Of the reforms promised in
the treaty of Berlin, and found, to her
CONSERVATION, that Russian influences
were supreme in the palace Of the sui
tan.
When to this is added the early con-
struction of the Siberian railway, re-
ducing two-thirds the time distance
across the continent to the ports Of
China and Japan, and connecting in
the west with all the railway systems
of Europe, it is no wonder that voices
are being raised in England against a
further continuance of the Palmerston-
ian anti-Russian policy, and demand
ing that the Russian bogy be forever
buried. Not only has Russian diplom-
acy won the game in Turkey, but her
enterprise threatens English m
cial supremacy in the Orient and mini
fes the value Of the investment in the
Suez canal. England is now counting
the cost of her Turkish policy and ques-
tioning seriously the value of it.