The times., 1898-10-09
1OLSTOIS PEACE PARTY
How 1t Regards the Cars
Disarmament Scheme.
THINKS He is SINCERE
But the Message of the Emperor of
Russia Does Not Awaken ANY
Members of the Peace Pnrty-eoes
Not Tend Toward ToIstoi'x Ideals.

How does the growing pezce party in
Russia, headed by Count Tolstoi. view the
Cars invitation TO nations to disarm?
There is one man in England well able TO
answer the question, NJ. Vladimir Tchert-
koff, who was once an officer in the I'm
perial Guards and members of the Rus
sian embassy in London, and is now liv
ing in Essex. He is interviewed by the
London News. Tiring or fashionable life,
he became a fervent Christian Socialist,
and for some time worked with Tolstoi
as his private secretary. His enthusiasm
carried him beyond the limits permitted
by the Russian government, and he was
offered the choice between exile in a little
town on the Baltic or banishment from
his fatherland. He chose the latter and
came to England. A skilled linguist, ne
seems almost as much at home with our
language as with his own. 1t was while
we were walking through sthe busiest
streets of this city of wealth, writes a
Daily News representative, that this man
who has renounced wealth, gave me his
impressions of his emperors latest act
He was careful to declare that what he
SAID must be taken as his personal opin-
ions alone and not necessarily those of
Tolstoi or his fellow refermers.
I regard the letter of Count Muravieff
as blow to the cause Of PEACE" said
M. Tchertkoff, ''and as one that is far
more likely to stir up interaa tional trou-
BILE than to promote good will. If. some
suggest, the emperor's advisers have been
influenced in issuing it by a desire to an
tlelpate the intention of the German Kai-
ser to issue a similar irritation from
Jerusalem, the invitation can hardly lead
to increased amity betweers Russia and
Germany. Those of us who believe all
war and force to be wrong cannot wei
come a message that invites to making a
little less ready for a wrong thing. If
war is wrong, as we believe, stop pre-
pairing for it altogether"
Did the message come 10 you, as TO
the rest of US, as a surprise?"
cannot say that l was surprised at
It 1t was so obvious a move in the
game of diplomacy, and gave such ad-
vantage to the one who made it. that
the only wonder is ii was not done long
ago. AS for its leading to any genuine
result, beyond the mere meeting of a
conference, and perhaps at best of a
temporary diminution of standing armies,
that it is quite another matter. But
while doubling the good of; the invita-
ton, for me there can be no question
Whatever OF the personal sincerity of the
emperor, Those of us who have known
him and watched the. growth of his
character, know that he coald not lend
himself to the issuing of a document for
Intentionally false. purposes Very pos
s1bly even the initiative may have come
from him. He is an esti:nable, gentle,
and considerate young man, who,
believe, desires nothing sc much as to
do what is right, and whose sympathies
are easilysaroused by the sufferings of
others For instance, at thestime of the
great disaster at his coronation fete.
when 1900 people were crushed to death
in panic in the fields beyond Moscow.
he was, have been told, for days quite