The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-17
RUSSIA TO MOVE FOR PEACE.
NEEDLESS SACRIFICES MUST END,
SAYS A HIGH PARSONAGE.
waste OF Blood and Money. to the Detri-
ment Of Both Countries. Likely to he
Succeeded by n RussO-~J apanese ALI.
anoe-Hints That Peace Is Near.
.gp.ctal Cable Despatch to THE sty.

Special Gable Despatch TO THE Sun.
LONDON, Sept 1.-THE Telegrdph's st.
Petersburg correspondent quotes an I'M
named parsonage, whose name, he says.
were at liberty to reveal 1t, would cause
his words to circulate with lightning-like
rapidity around the world, as saying;
1T Is possible that the war may end
sooner than most people imagine. Media
ton Is as impossible as Intervention. Rus
sia cannot permit any interference. whether
1t emanates from friend or neighbor. /
cannot describe the conclusion Of peace as
an impending event but as a contingency
which may be realized much sooner than
people suppose.
Mediation will not achieve 1t, but solely
the conviction that the campaign must
end, as the battle of Iiaoyang ended, in
costly sacrifices on both sides and a de-
cisive advantage to neither.
Russia single handed can worst and an
initiate Japan II she puts forth all her
strength and draws upon all her resources.
That can be asoertained as any mathe-
matioal truth, but the effort would exhaust
the nation without benefting it, and Rus
sias consequent temporary weakness would
operate as a temptation to enterprising
If we attempt not merely TO defeat,
but to suppress Japan other State inter-
ested in the Far East sill vigorously urge
their right to be heard, and Russia weak
ened by her losses. financial and military,
of a long campaign, would find IL hard to
disallow their claims.
The correspondents informant is Of the
opinion that no power could wage war
like the present one for five or six years
without disastrous consequences to its we'll
being at home and its prestige abroad.
He declared that two years Is the utmost
limit to which such a campaign can be
protracted without leaving baneful and
lasting traces on the State organism He
added:
"The question which it behooves us now
to carefully study Is what advantages are
to be gained by refusing to make terms
much earlier This question, in another
form, was clearly put and frankly answered
at the outset Of the war by group of pub
lie men whose knowledge of the subject is
greater than their influence.
To-day it is being tackled by others,
whose knowledge and power stand to each
other in inverse relations, and who are
becoming alive to its urgency and getting
acquainted with its various elements,
.rhey are beginning to perceive that
Japan can hold out long enough to compel
us to bear the strain very much longer II
our aim be to cripple her permanently,
and also that peace eighteen or twenty
months hence, with japan embittered, but
not utterly defeated, would be only an
armed truce that would be followed by a
more sanguinary campaign few years
hence.
THE alternatives may be formulated
thus Either the ruin Of japan, purchased
by ruinous sacrifices, or a treaty Of cordial
friendship, to be followed in the fulness
of time by that offensive and defensive
alliance which for years has constituted
the ideal OF the Japanese Government.
Between the roads leading to these two
goals there can be no third course.
-The problem is NOW being attentively
studied in quarters where the will and the
deed will follow each other at very short
intervals, and as the data for sound opinion
are abundant, it is possible, and perhaps
probable, that peace will be arranged sooner
than most people imagine
The informant added that any such agree
ment must necessarily be based ON the
gertrude that Japan is truly desirous Of
friendship as well as peace. Referring to
the difficulty Of Russia making overtures
without creating the impression Of weak
ness, the informant said;
Il cannot say there Ia greater difficulty
than Mr. Gladstone experienced in discon-
tinuing the campaign against the Beers
after the battle OF Majuba Hill. Russia
would certainly not choose any such un-
favorable moment for ending the present