Evening star., 1898-08-29
Russian Cars Proposal to the Worlds
Powers.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE INVITED
He Seeks to End the Progressive
Increase Of Armament.
THE COM ENT ABROAD

MurdVleII, the Foreign minister, on tne Z4ln
instant handed to the foreign diplomats at
st. Petersburg a note declaring that the
maintenance of peace and the reduction
of the excessive ornaments now crushing
all nations is the ideal for which all gov
ernments ought to strive.
The czar considers the present moment
favorable for the inauguration of a move
ment looking to this end, and invites the
powers to take part in an international
conference as a means of thus insuring
real and lasting peace, and terminating
the progressive increase of armament. The
text of the note follows:
The maintenance of general peace and
the possible reduction of the excessive ar
naments which weigh upon all nations
present themselves in existing conditions
to the whole world as an ideal toward
which the endeavors of all governments
should be directed. The humanitarian and
magnanimous ideas of his majesty, the
emperor, my august master, have been
Won over to this view in the conviction
that this lofty aim is in conformity with
the most essential interests and legitimate
views of all the powers, and the imperial
government thinks the present moment
would be very favorable to seeking the
means.
LonEfnEs for Peace.
international discussion is the most eff
fectual means of insuring all peoples ben
eft-a real, durable peace, above all, put
ting an end to the progressive develop
ment of the present ornaments.
I'm the course of the last twenty years
the longing for general appeasement has
grown especially pronounced in the con-
sciences of civilized nations and the pres
as an object of international policy. 1t is
in its name that great states have con-
cluded among themselves powerful alli-
ances-
they have developed in proportions hither-
to unprecedented their military forces, and
still continue to increase them, without
shrinking from any sacrifice.
Nevertheless all these efforts have not
yet been able to bring about the beneficent
result Observation-Disclosures
The financial charges following the up
ward march strike at the very root of
public prosperity. The intellectual and
physical strength of the nations. labor and
capital, are mostly diverted from their
natural application, and are unproductivey
consumed Hundreds of millions are devot-
ed to acquiring terrible engines of destruc-
ton, which, though today regarded as the
last work of science, are destined tomor-
row to lose all their value in consequence
of some fresh discovery in the same field
National culture economic progress and
the production of wealth are either para
Nzed or checked in development More
over. in proportion as the armaments of
each power increase they less and less full
MI tne OBJECT the governments have set
before themselves.
Crushing burden.
THE economic crisis, due in great part
to the system of armaments Foutrance.
and the continual danger which lies IN this
rnassing of war material, are transforming
the armed peace of our days into crush
1rg burden which the peoples have more
and more difficulty in bearing.
1T appears evident that if this state of
things We're to be prolonged it would inev-
1tably lead to the very cataclysm it is de-
sired to avert, and the horrors whereof
make every thinking being shudder in ad-
vance
ITO put an end to these incessant a-rna-
ments, and to seek the means of wardiug
OFF the calamities which are threatening
the whole World-such is the supreme duty
today imposed upon all states.
Filled with this idea, his majesty has
been pleased to command me to propose
TO all the governments whose representa-
uves are accredited 10 the imperial court
the assembling CT a conference which shall
occupy itself with this grave problem.
This conference Will be, by the help of
God, happy presage for the century
which is about to open. 1t would converge
into one powerful focus the efforts of all
states sincerely seeking to make the great
conception of universal peace triumph over
the elements of trouble and discord, and it
would. at the same time, cement their
agreement by corporate conservation of
the principles of equity and right whereon
rest the security of states and the welfare
of peoples.
Kept 1t Secret.
The London Times correspondent in St
Petersburg says:
The proposal for a conference which
was made by the czar on Wednesday,
through the medium of the foreign ambas-
sadors al St. Petersburg, had been kept
profoundly secret until today at the eX-
press wish of Count Muravieff, the foreign
minister, that it might first be pronnui-
gated on the day of the unveiling of the
monument in the kremin to Alexander H.
There is reason to believe that it formed
the object of communications between the
courts of St. Petersburg and Berlin sorne
time previously, and in all probability the
support of Germany at least was secured
in advance.
Russia with her chronic famines and her
vast enterprises in the far east to provide
for out of the budget which is being drawn
upon more and more every year for mate
rials of war in order to keep pace with the
other powers, must naturally feel the want
of international cooperation In her present
policy of peace and of economical devel-
opment."
Times Editorial Comment.
The Times says editorialIy:
''The note breathes a spirit of generous,
perhaps, indeed, almost Quixotic, human
ity-a spirit familiar in the effusions Of
Missionaries, but too seldom found in the
utterances of great sovereigns and response
BILE statesmen.
Never perhaps, in modern history have
aspirations which good men in all ages nave
regarded as at once ideal and unattainabie
found SO responsive an echo in the counSelS
of one of the greatest and most powerful
of the worlds rulers. In principle the pro-
posals of the car, put forth en- a solemn &C.
casion with every mark of disinterested
sincerity, will command the sympathy and
respect of all men of good will. So far as
abandoned continental ambitions. and there
is no power in the world which has less to
gain or more to lose by any disturbance OF
existing territorial status quo.
THE time has long gone by when Brit
ish commerce could be made to flourish
| in and by means of war. The greatest OF
our interests is peace, and so sensitive Is
our worldwide commerce that even ru-
| mors of war often do US more injury than
war itself might do to a power less de-
| pendent than is Great Britain on a free
| interchange with the whole world of the
| manifold products of its native industries.
Hailed With CordinIity.
IF Russia, which has also a great, bu
| still undeveloped. industrial future before
| her, is becoming fully convinced, as we in
| England long have been. that her resources