New-York tribune., 1905-08-28
RnSSLA.S RESPONSIBLLITY.

We heSitated to accept at once as true ana
to comment upon the profoundly disquleuhg
news of Saturday evening from ST Petersburg,
! hoping that like some other reports from that
capital it might prove 10 be mistaken or un-
founded. IT, however, appears, it is
! 10 stand uncontradicted, and we are to be com
/ peled with unspeakabe reluctance, TO regard
! it as true, and to believe that, rather than pay
even the smallest indemnity or even TO admit
| the principle of indemnity for a war of her
own causing Russia will defeat the negotia-
! tons for peace and continue the war, then we
| must thoughtfully and advisedly place upon
record the solemn conviction, which is, we
| truly believe, also the conviction of the vast
majority of the civilized world that the Rus
sian government is adopting a course OF
astounding unreasonableness and is assuming
responsibility of bloodguiltiness for which 1t
may properly be impeached at the bar of hu-
manity. This is said with all possible good will
toward Russia and with an ineXpresSible regret
that she has so disappointed the reasonable anu
benevolent expectations of mankind. It is also
said in all mpartiality. If Japan had made
comparable utterance, If she had said for eX-
ample that she would make no peace unless
the full amount Of her war expenses, or OF the
indemnity which she claimed, were paid, we
should have said the same of her. But Japan
has not said it, She has made great conces-
sjons from her original demands, and is doubt
less ready to make more She had and has just
ground for asking that her war expenses shall be
paid by Russia But for the sake of peace she has
greatly abated that demand and has expressed
willingness herself to assume hundreds Oh
millions of dollars of expense to which she was
forced, in self-defence, by Russian aggression.
1t is Russia, apparently, that refuses 10 make
upon this crucial point even the slightest con-
cession Japan says that for the sake of peace
| lor1Y,d n
of dollars. Russia says that for the sake or
peace she will not pay a single cent
Why is that unyielding attitude assumed:
Because it is intimated. by paying indemnity
she would be losing prestige and would be con
Tossing either that she was in the wrong or
that she was hopelessly beaten. If those are
! her pretexts. they are unsound and untrue Her
prestige is already impaired so far that little
more or less would not matter. II she mas not
actually been defeated and beaten on sea and
on land beyond all reasonable hope of recoup-
ment for half a generation to come, we should
be gratiied 10 know the Russian definition OF
| the word defeat Nor could any further act
| make more complete her confession, already
| made, that she was in the wrong in the con-
| troversy that led TO the war. Before the war
| she refused to get out of Manchuria or even to
concede that Japan had right to discuss the
question of her doing So. saying, as her last
|
what Russia did in China Now she declares
her willingness to get out, at Japan's dictation.
! Why? 1t must be either because she knows
! she was wrong and therefore ought in justice
! to get out, or because she knows she has been
| beaten by Japan and therefore must through
/ necessity get out. In either case she logically
| confesses herself to be in a position in which
! she is properly liable to be taxed heavy in
| demnity Yet she refuses 10 pay a cent. She
practically confesses judgment, but refuses TO
satisfy it, Rather than admit that as a mat
ter Of principle she ought 10 pay the penalty
of her wrongdoing in costs of the war, she
proposes TO continue the war. That is ap-
palIing attitude to be taken by power which
wishes itself to be considered great, civilized
and Christian.
There can be no doubt that Russia could better
afford to pay the whole indemnity originally
asked by Japan than to continue the war. 1t
may be also that from the purely pecuniary
point of view Japan could better afford to fore
go the whole indemnity than 10 continue the
war. But such sOrdid considerations should
not and do not prevail. Japan is not demand
ing money or blood" She is demanding terms
of peace that will assure her and will assure
the world that the blood already shed will not
have been shed in vain. What Japan cannot
afford TO do, and what the world. in whose be-
| half she has fought this war. cannot afford to
have her do, Is TO agree to any terms of peace
which would mperi the security of the great
| ends which have been gained by the war. The
| object of a treaty of peace is not merely TO
| stop the fighting. That is its immediate and
| temporary object but its greater and per
manent object is TO safeguard the fruits of the
| fighting and to establish upon an indisputabe
and mpregnable basis lasting settlement Of
| the issues which were submitted TO the dread
| full arbitrament of war To demand anything
| less than that and TO demand that with any
| thing less than inexOrable resolution, would
| be unworthy Of a humane nation. When, in
| 1882, it was suggested that the United States
should relinquish some of the essential fruits oe
| its war, Franklin promptly responded: NO sir.
IF you insist upon that, we go back to York
town" He was quite right So IS Japan quite
| right in insisting that the ends she has won in
war at so great cost shall not be thrown
| away in the making of peace Hitherto It has
| been Russias pr0yerbial boast that while she
has lost heavily In war she has more than
gained it all through diplomacy. In the pres
ent case we doubt If shall that boast
fulfilled, can envy Russia the awful
| responsibility of seeking its fulflment.