The Wichita tribune., 1898-09-03
Would MAKE An ENDIO WAR
The Gar of Russia Calls a Uni
yersaI Peace Conference.
ALL NATIONS ASKED TO JOIN.
Aims to Abandon Huge Defensive Arma-
ments-The Fruits of Industry Alb
sorbed by the Maintenance of Huge
Military Establishments.


of Emperor Nicholas, Count Muravieff,
the foreign minister, on the oath inst.
handed to the foreign diplomats at st.
Petersburg a note declaring that the
maintenance of peace and the reduc-
tion of the excessive armaments now
crushing all nations is the ideal for
which all governments ought to strive.
The czar considers the present mo-
ment favorable for the Inauguration
of movement looking to this end,
and invites the powers to take part in
an international conference as means
of thus insuring real and lasting peace
and terminating the progressive in
crease of armament.
The text of the note follows: "The
maintenance of general peace and the
possible reduction of the excessive ar
maments which weigh upon all ma
tions 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 impe-
rial government thinks the present
moment would be very favorable to
seeking the means.
international discussion is the most
effectual means of insuring all peoples
beneit--a real, durable peace, above
all putting an end to the progressive
development of the present arma
ments.
I'm the course of the last twenty
years, the longing for general appease-
ment has grown especially pronounced
in the consciences of civilized nations;
and the preservation of peace has been
put forward as an object of interna-
tional policy. It is in its name that
great states have concluded among
themselves powerful alliances.
1T is better to guarantee peace that
they have developed in proportions
hitherto unprecedented to their mill
crease them without shrinkage from
any sacrifice.
Nevertheless, all these efforts have
not been able to bring about the benef-
cent results desired-paci6catio
The financial charges following the
upward march strike at the very root
of public prosperity. The intellectual
and physical trength of the nations,
labor and capital, are mostly diverted
from their natural application and are
nproductively consumed. Hundreds
of millions are devoted to acquiring
terrible engines of destruction, which,
though to-day regarded as the last
work of science, are destined to-mor
row to lose all their value in conse-
quence of some fresh discovery in the
same field. National culture, economic
progress and the production of wealth
are either paralyzed or checked in de-
velopment. Moreover, in proportion
as the armaments of each power in
crease, they less and less fulfill the OBJ
iect the governments have set before
themselves.
''The economic crisis, due in great
part to the system of armaments,
Poutrance, and the continual danger
which lies in this massing of war ma
terial are Transforming the armed
peace of our days into crushing bur-
den which the peoples have more and
more difficulty in bearing.
''It appears evident that, if this
state of things were to be prolonged,
it would inevitably lead to the very
cataclysm it is desired to avert, and
the horrors thereof make every think
ing being shudder in advance.
ITO put an end to these increasing
armaments and to seek the means of
warding off the calamities which are
threatening the whole world-such is
the supreme duty to-day imposed upon
all states.
FILLED with this idea, his majesty
has been pleased to command me to
propose to all the governments whose
representatives are accredited to the
imperial court the assembling of a
conference which shall occupy itself
with this grave problem.