Los Angeles herald., 1905-06-10
CZAR HAS CAST THE DIE
Will Make Peace If Dignity Can Be
Preserved
By Associated Press.


By Associated Press.
ST. PETERSBURG, June 9.-M. Bout
iron, first secretary of the French en-
bassy, had a long conference with
Foreign Minister Lamsdorff this after
noon and NJ. Bompard, the French am
bassador, is hurrying back from Paris
France, instead of displaying Jealousy
at the initiative taken by President
Roosevelt with a view to bringing Rus
sia and japan together for peace, has
apparently warmly welcomed it and
will give its cooperation.
No further development is now ex-
pected until President Roosevelt re-
turns to Washington from his trip to
Virginia. Statements in the dispatches
that the presidents sole aim is to bring
the warning powers together in direct
negotiations have been confirmed.
There has been no undertaking on his
part to apprise Russia of the japanese
terms, nor, it is believed, to find a pre-
| liminary basis for negotiations. The
main obstacle to the presidents efforts
has been removed by the emperor's s
acquiescence in his initiative, and nego-
tiations are probably now proceeding
at Toxic.
When the question of the naming of
peace plenipotentiaries is raised the
name of George de Staal. who preceded
Count Benkendorff as Russian ambas-
sador at London and who was presi-
dent of the peace conference at The
Hague in 1899 at once occurs to every
Russian.
Many Russians SkepticaI
Notwithstanding the progress al
ready made, a great deal of skepticism
is manifested in certain quarters as to
the result of President Roosevelt s
efforts. The public seems reluctant to
believe that the emperor could have
assented to anything like a movement
toward peace. Some cynics even try to
create the impression that Russia only
seeks to ascertain Japan's terms and
then, by Haunting the hard conditions
imposed in the faces of the representa-
tives of the people when they meet to
arouse the whole nation to resist them.
Such talk, however, is mere irrespon-
sible chatter. The emperor has cast
the die and will make peace if Japan's
terms be such that Russia can accept
them with dignity.
The emperor, it must be pointed out,
has not sued for peace. He has only
assented to a proposition made by the
head of a friendly power, and the mat
ter officially goes no further than that
Russia, now as ever, is ready to see
if common basis can be reached.
The commencement of formal peace
negotiations, especially If coupled with
the prompt announcement of the con-
voking of a national assembly, may
avert the threatened crisis which the
liberals are forcing on the government,
or it may only serve to precipitate it..
Astounded by Such Language
Moscow is now a perfect hotbed of
protest against the existing regime and
the address which the deputation from
the zemstvo congress held there has
brought to ST. Petersburg for presenta-
ton TO the emperor has fairly stunned
the members of the government. Moth
ing approaching such language as is
used in the document, from men of
such standing as those who signed IT,
has ever before been heard in Russia.
There is peremptory ring about 1t
which is ominous. Those bearing the
address come to st. Petersburg claim
ing to be the plenipotentiaries of the
Russian people, delivering an ultima
tum that does not beg terms. but de-
mands rights and almost threatens the
government with civil war if it does not
yield. What is more ominous still is
that the body which this deputation
represents has not left Moscow, but has
only adjourned, awaiting the emperor's