The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-08-26

a similar plight to talk with make him
| the very redoubtable plain soldier that
he is.
| While the Emperor has gone East
on the task of raising men. by conjur-
/ ing with his miracle working saint, NJ.
de Witte has started for the West on
an equally important errand. He de-
MES that his visit to Berlin has any
object beyond conferences on the terms
o. the Russo German commercial
treaty which he drafted when Minister
of Finance, from the side of this Gov
eminent, and which has shortly to be
renewed But he knows as all his
countrymen know, that if he can raise
| a good loan at an early date among
the German bankers, he will have taken
a long step toward the accomplishment
OF his ambition, which is to exercise
again a controlling influence in the
| Government.
NJ. de Witte has no real friends
among the Imperial and Grand ducal
set, even while their carriages are at
! his door every day and they are seek
| ing counsel, as from a financial wizard,
| for good speculations or at least for
an escape from the consequences of the
| present collapse in prices. His i'm
! placable adversary, NJ. de Plehve a
/ man of nothing like his intelligence or
political ability, but of steadier char
/ acter and immovably fixed in his faith
I in autocracy, has the unstinted sup
port of the Emperor's mother, perhaps
the most politically valuable asset for
a Minister in Russia. There is not
! room on the top for both of them;
and it is in his reputation as a money
Aud n IL
I is the only hope for his return.
| Under their present mana cement Rus
sian finances are rapidly approaching
the hand-to-mouth stage. The public
departments get money where they can,
and promise to pay when they can.
The accepted principle that taxation is
to be levied as deliberately as possible
with the one object of furnishing SAL
aries to the greatest number that can
! be devised of civil servants does not
adapt itself to- raising large additional
revenue for war purposes. Even where
war taxes are imposed the proceeds
show all the old tendency of sticking
to the collectors pockets.
France, the obliging friend in so
many emergencies, is wholly estranged
from the present policy for which all
the fresh loans are needed. She has
! let it be known time and again, before
and since the war began that she win
not fight by Russias side on any
struggle arising out OF Russias Asiatic
expansion policy. She sees, moreover,
with every fresh obligation her ally
incurs, a depreciation in her position
as debtor.
If money can be made to come forth
anywhere, from anybody, the men gov
or fY1cr
thought to Frances anxieties when
they put up secures. It is here that
NJ de White has his opportunity, and
men who are not his friends believe he
has good chance of arranging loan.
The internal poverty among the
peasantry is instanced by an expert
ence of a friend of the present writer.
He owns timber forests in the northern
provinces, and was in one of them a
fortnight ago. A boy came to his Of
flee with a message written by the
overseer of another forest. The note
was marked pay bearer so kopecks.'
He asked the boy how far he had come,
and was told that he had come rs
versts, all the way on foot, which made
his terms as a messenger one cent for
two miles.
The timber owner gave him an ex-
ira so kopecks as gratuity and the boy
was eager to find any other errand on
, the same terms.
The notion of japanese naval Off
GERS contracting to bring the Turkish
Navy up to date has caught the atten-
ton of the large class of Russians
who like to dissert on coming troubles
for their country. The report is wide
ly credited; and people are told to ex-
=,
anchored off the Golden Horn will be
replaced by a fleet of the swiftest de-
stroyers differed by the diabolical
Japanese.
A recent achievement of a Captain in
the Turkish navy is instanced on be-
half of the more neighborly and safer
kind of old salt that Russians would
prefer to have as enemy. This Turk
happened to be captain of a cruiser
that was fit to steam out to sea. The
Sultan ordered him to take a cruise
to Malta. Captain and ship set out
and were missing for two months.
/ When Abdul Hamid had reconciled
himself to his loss, the cruiser turned
up safely on the Bosphorus. In anger,
/ the Sultan sent for the captain and
demanded why he had not reported
himself from Malta and why he had
been gone SO long. The captain an
sWered that there was mistake. He
had sought everywhere for Malta,
which he was now convinced did not
exist
The Sultan expressed establishment
and suggested that he had not looked
for the island in the right place. The
captain told him he had looked every
where on the waters and there was
no place called Malta. His sovereign
unused for a time. then decorated the
captain for his effort and bade him go
his way.
80. $3.50 .n.,u