The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-02-07

A dispatch from st. Petersburg through
feeling of hostility to Great Britain in Rus
sian army and navy circles, and an army
officer is quoted as saying:
Japan must be crushed. The japanese
must be cleared off Russia's flank; otherwise
the advance of the Cars forces cannot be
continued across China. Japan stands be-
tween Russia and the aim of which Ii has
never lost sight-to turn the British out OF
their position in India and TO shdtter the
British wall that blocks the Russian path in
the Persian gulf and the Bosporus
Whether the army officer is correctly
quoted or not this harmonizes with Russian
policy for many years past. For at least
twenty years her policy in the East has
been one of steady aggression and of terri
torial and political ACKNOWLEDGMENT. The
least civilized and the most Inscriptions
of all the great powers, she has, during the
period named, accomplished more than any
of them in the way of extending her terri
torial possessions and political influence,
and to-day she is as determined as she ever
was to become the dominant power in the
far East.
In carrying out her policy Russia depends
more on diplomacy than on arms. A recent
historian says:
Russia has never been an unaided victor
In a single important war in modern times,
nor a real victor in any. Her successes
have been, not through arms. but through
peaceful. If sometimes menacing, diplo-
macy. In her last war with Turkey the as
sistance of Roumania saved her from dis
aster. In the Crimean war she was thor
oughly beaten on her own ground. In Hun
gary she was merely Austria's ally. Her
best armies were vanquished and her ancient
capital seized by Bonaparte; and, though
his army was at last destroyed, it was by
the Russian climate and not by Russian
arms. On the field of action the history Of
Russia records an almost unbroken series
of defeats.
On the other hand, it is equally true that
in diplomacy the Russian record is one of
all but invariable success. Now and then
she has been baffled, but only for time;
few more years have brought the victory
When Bonaparte fell in 1913 the Car stood
foremost among the conquerors, though he
had contributed to the victory nothing but
defeats. All that she lost in the Crimea in
1850 Russia regained through diplomatic
audacity In 1871. Baffled by Disraeli I'm 1875
at the time of the Berlin conference follow
ing the war with Turkey, she has since
then, by insidious advances, more than Sc
cured her ends. On the Afghan border and
on the Pamirs, along the Amoor and in
Korea, I'm Manchuria and the Iao-Tong
peninsula, she has been uniformly tri-
umphant.
BY the same process of diplomatic du-
plicity and bluff and steadily keeping her
eye on her own interests, regardless of all
others, Russia has, during the last few
years. gained complete domination over
Manchuria and intrenched herself In posi-
lions where she menaces Korea and Japan,
and all without firing a gun.
If Japan is ever to fight for self-preserva-
ton the time has fully come for her to do
so. If she allows Russia to beat her in the
present game of diplomacy she will wake up
a few years hence to find the bear again at
her doors. as hungry as ever and even bet
ter equipped to enforce its demands. Rus
sia's record as failure in war and victor
In diplomacy increases the probability that
even in the present emergency she will try
to gain what she can without either de-
claring or provoking war, and trust to the
next crisis to gain further advantages Per-
haps. however, Japan is too thoroughly
alive to Russia's plans and her own danger
to be cajoled into making any concession
In that case Russia may fight, and If she
does it is to be hoped her record of failure in
war may pursue her.
1t is quite within the limits of possibility
that Russia's plans of future aggrandize-
ment may contemplate driving Great Brit
ain out of India. If she attempts that she
will find she is dealing with nation which
has almost unbroken a record of sue
cess in war as Russia has of failure, and
which is pretty well up in diplomacy, also