The morning news., 1899-03-13
Ren.on for AIIinnce Mith RussIn.

Re0SOn Tor AiliHnGe win huSAlAs
The question Of the peace conference
found excited little attention in Paris ex-
ceptng on account of the bearing which
IL might have on the Franco-Russian alli-
ance. When that alliance was formed
those who did not know the Car imagined
that it was a menace to the peace of Eu-
rope Those who knew the Car knew
otherwise. The object of Alexander III
in thus estoring the equilibrium of Eu-
rope and in satisfying the wounded amour
propre of France was the natural culmin-
alton of the policy which won for him the
title of the peace keeper of the continent.
In his eyes France isolated, France ner-
vous. France desperate, was a
constant menace to the peace of the
world At any moment she might make
a plunge, by which she would hurl not
only herself but all other nations into the
heil of a general war. To prevent this
Is was necessary 20 offer her inducements
sufficient to lead her to acquiesce in the
status quo. There were two perils Of
war before Europe, both threatened by
France. She had never accepted either
the German possession of Alsace-Lor-
raine or6the British occupation of Egypt.
To attempt to re-establsh her position
either in Metz or in Cairo meant war.
To minimize the risk of any such peace
shattering policy, Alexander Ill without
asking for any express disclaimer by
his ally of hostile designs, directed
either against Germany or Britain, virtu-
ally secured the practical acceptance of
the status quo by Offering France an alli-
ance which was guaranteed to fall to
pieces If she undertook an aggressive war.
Russia flung over the French republic the
immense aegis of her alliance delivering
France from all dread of attack from
49,.
position in Europe which she had lost in
1870. But all these advantages were for
feited if France drew the sword against
the existing order, the status quo de facto
on the Rhine and the Nile. Hence the
Franco Russian alliance became, as it was
intended il should become solid security
for European peace, and, therefore, little
as the French like 1t, a virtual consecra-
ton of the treaty of Frankfort. 1t was ac-
claimed, no doubt, by the Chauvinists of
the boulevards as If II were the first step
to Revanche. 1t was exactly the opposite.
But Baron Mohrenheim appears to have
fooled the self-deluded Frenchmen to the
top of their bent. while the Tsar, con-
scious that he had made the limitation of
the alliance absolutely clear to the rulers
of the republic, felt under no obligation
to make public declarations which might
have annulled the whole object Of his pol
icy OF peace. The Tsar knew also that
although the boulevards of Paris might
revel In the delirium of anticipated war,
the French nation. pacific and indus strious,
hailed with immense relief an alliance
which delivered it at once from all risk
of foreign attack, or from the still greater
peril of such a headlong rush to ruin as
that which eliminated on the battlefield of
Sedan.
The Dreyfus Case.
France is preoccupied with the Dreyfus
case. And the Dreyfus case is militarsm
come to judgment miiitarism made mani
fest before the world. The tree Is known
by It's fruits and the impeachment of mill
tarism on economic grounds contained in
the Muravieff circular is supplemented and
made complete by the revelation of the
oLtcome of militarsm in the moral field.
"Miltarism." says the Tsar, "empties the
pockets of the nations" And France. re-
spending across the continent, as deep an
sv ers unto deep, answers, "and destroys
their Sou.s!'
France preoccupied, absorbed, possessed
by the Dreyfus case, is the drunken helot
of militarism to-day. She is as one be-
witched, the prey of some foul, obsessing
demon, which takes "a perverse delight i'm
compelling her to wallow in all manner
of detfements, from which ideal France,
the deathless, the divine, would have re-
coiled with angry scorn. II is the nemesis
of the system against which the Tsar has
taken the field. France never had a more
numerous or better equipped army than
she possesses at present. But France never
was weaker, more timorous, more under
the terror of those Nightmares which dis
turb the sleep of nations. 1t is not an exag-
geration to say that the net result up to
fate of all the sacrifices which France
has made over her armaments is to make
her a prey to panic to an extent almost in
conceivable to anyone outside Paris You
ask in amazement: why all this tremen-
dous hubbub over the revision of a SEN
tence admittedly illegal, defended by evi-
dence admittedly forged?" and the oppo-
nents of revision whisper with white lips
that revision would inevitably bring about
war! To avoid the risk OF so terrible an al
tentative, better let thousand innocent
men perish in the Devils Isle! Thus IL ap-
pears that France, despite all her arma.
ments-nay, is II not because of them?-has
become so coward of heart and craven OF
spirit that she dare not even do Justice tc
one of her own officers for fear of the for.
eigner! Such abject poltroonery would dis.
grace the pettiest of states without a CUR
in its arsenal or fort on its frontiers Bul
to this pass has come to-day this dis.
tfauSnt reouDllc.
Sacrifice to the Army.
The delirium will pass. Revision is al.
ready virtually secured and the light is
already beginning to break through the
dense darkness in which France has lain
so long. But for the present the country
Is stin In the throes of a fever. which
springs as directly from the atmosphere
of the barrack-room as ague results from
the malarias of the marsh. Nations create
armies that they may be strong and in
dependent, able to do justice within their
own frontier, none daring to make them
afraid. But France, having sacrificed ev-
erything to the creation of her army, the
army no longer means to an end. hav-
ing become an end in itself, thus tends
10 defeat the very aim and object of It's
being. The nation, or at least such Dor.
tions of the nation as find articulate ex-
preston in the press, has been in a very
ague of fear. 1t covered before its owr
shadow. IL trembled at the thought OF
the wrath of the foreigner. 1t shrieket
in panic dread at the mere suggestions
that even officers of the general STAFF
should be compelled TO obey the laws
There is no crime which its more dement,.
ed spokesmen do not commit either In