The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-09
DISARMAMENT NOT IN FAVOR.
WHY ENGLAND rs NOT LINELY no
ACCEPT THE CARS SUGGESTION.

I
Has Problems of Her own ana
Must Meet Them in Her Own Way.
Prospects of an Ansio-tuscrican
| AIliancc-WuI Come ~ at All
| Through the Moral sentiment OF
| the TWO Peoples.
London. Oct 1.-Great Britain. the ooun-
| try which has always aul consistently
stood for peace, is the ono in which the
! cars peace manifesto has attracted the
/ least attention. favorably or otherwise. In
/ Paris, the mention of the man whose
name two years ago was received with Al
most worshipful enthusiasm, is now treat
ed with contempt, and the papers every
where refer to the manifesto as "the
! cars encycAcal." In England there is no
contempt and likewise no enthusiasm for
the Cars peace Programme The peace
society has Of course received the mes
sage with delight, which it has promptly
| expressed, but the public men who have
! given utterance to an opinion on the sub
| ject have been for the most part decidedly
unfavorable TO England's participation in
any such conference as that proposed by
the Gar
Sir Charles Dixie Is the latest of these to
give expression Of his views. Al his house
in Sloane street the other day, he said to
-, ..7-... :.
! '''e "a "''7'Ni " q Hue9''0"
on this subject;
Frankly, it has suggested itself to me
that Russia should be the first power to
| Illustrate her proposed programme. She
has the largest standing army in the
| world her peace estabiahmcot comprises
! nearly mhhon Of men, and / confess IL is
difficult for me TO understand any neces-
! SHY Tor TINS oVerWhelming force. There
IS no geographical or military necessity
for it, so far as 1t is apparent Therefore,
it would seem that the Empire of the
! car Is IN an eNceitent position TO show the
| world her new ideas in actual operation.
| Yet, almost co-lncidSntal win the ISSUING
OF the manitesto comes news OF an en-
| iargement of Russian military plans which
makes the prospect of the peace pro-
gramme seem dubious 10 say the least.
But Of course, if such a suggestion as
this were to be made 10 the world IT is
eminently fitting chat Russia should make
It. she IS the any or france whereas II
the manifesto mad come from Germany
whose attitude has more than suggested
it on several occasions, 1t might have APP
peared as hostile 10 France; in other words
as plan 10 make France acquiesce IN
Germany permanent possession OF Al
SAGE
| sun thcfe IS something curious aDoul
| the way TINS peace Manifesto came. Inc
change of front on the part of Nicholas II
which it indicates, reminds one of Lord
salisbury sudden Hop on the occasion OF
the Venezuelan dispute with the United
States. lt is hardly four months since the
Car was considering, if not counselling
| directly opposite idea-that or combining
| an enormous increase of Russian naval
forces with an increase Of his vast stand
ing army.
ITO what occult influences the sudder
| change is to be attributed, IL is of course
impossible to sayl Eve causes st1Gge 81
themselves, both Of which may be more
or less concerned one of these is the al
most unprecedented influence of the pres
ent Russian minister of finance and MS
cOunsels Of caution as result Of the grea
drain of the Siberian railroad on the ma
tiouai treasury. The second influence may
not improbably be traced to the disas
tTous harVests which have been experience
| ed in Russia for the past two or three
years.
Were England disposed to accept the
suggestion Of disarmament, she would fine
: her position a complicated one In the
E first place, there is the Indian army 1t /.
necessary to maintain depots for it in Eng
land. and these could not at present be de
< creased. Aside from this, England's ianC
forces are not large If we count out those
= actually engaged in campaign duty in Al
RIGA. or absolutely necessary for garrison
work elsewhere
Were disarmament attempted to be eX-
f tended to naval as wen to land forces
there would be many practical difficulties
, in the way. The number, size ana re-
sources of the existing fleets of all the
: powers cannot be stereotyped. Every pro
p0sed change offers room for great con
fIict of oDinion and This If carried int
a action. might indeed be the basis for new
} wars. Therefore, it appears that any
formal agreement arrived at by the pro
l posed conference might be a great may
even saw a dangerous-rnistake It is not
? logical or rational to look for a sudden
/ transformation Of Improvement in the ex-
l listing status of things from such a theo-
e retical ssrrangement. OF course some de
crease of the enormous pressure of taxes
f in several of the continental countries