The Washington times., 1905-03-15
Short Sighted Russia.

Russia will conclude peace on her
own terms.
Count Cassini has reiterated this
forecast of the future in the face of
each successive defeat suffered by the
Russian forces in the far Orient. He
has professed to believe all along that
the conflict could be made exclusively
a war Of resources, and that, being
reduced to a matter of ledgers and
credit, the armies of the Car must
inevitably win at the last
The Times makes no comment on
the character of government willing
to pour out the lives Of it's citizens in
such a campaign of exhaustion.
Neither does it bring into question
Count Cassini's sincerity. But it SUBJ
mits that both the autocraey at ST.
Petersburg and its distinguished rep
resentative in Washington have been
wonderfully short-sighted.
Did Russia think she could con-
tinue to wage war indefinitely on bor-
rowed money? Did she think she
could continue to place loans at $50
or S89, or less. without an ultimate
reclsoning-not only for the interest
and repayment Of the older loans, but
for the obtainment of new loans as
well? If she did, she did not con-
suit her distinguished ex-minister Of
finance, Serge De Witte.
That brilliant statesman must have
known that other nations would not
lend to Russia Indefinitely. The man
who had foated the most adyantag-
eous loans the nation has made in re-
cent times must have discovered long
ago that bankers lend to nations as
they lend to individual citizens, only
when the prospective earnings of
their money balance the maximum
risk. And The Times will be greatly
surprised to learn. at any time in the
future. that yesterdays developments
in Paris were not anticipated by him.
Those developments are sufficiently
set forth in the following dispatch:
Paris March 1.-The great news OF
the day in Paris is the adjournment OF
the negotiations for new Russian loan
between the French financial delegates
and the Russian minister OF finance.
The negotiations have not, however
8 been broken of, and should peace en-
sue at an early date they are likely tC
be resumed
The trouble is not exclusively due e
The bad news from Manchurfa. but also
to the internal complica tons in Russia
The impression seen2s 10 be that after
peace is concluded the domestic situa,
tion will improve.
This is not all. The papers oi
Paris are not slow to construe thi:
postponement. The Temps, for ex
ample, says:
II was quite natural that the Pari
bankers should refuse TO sign a contrac
IN view OF the conditions in Manchuris
and the entire ignorance Of the finan
ciers concerning the real intentions o
the Russian government
The Journal des Debats, in it
financial article, observes:
Many people consider the adjourn
T1lent to be evidence that Russia ha
reached the END Of her resources
And La Revue has announced TO
publication today an article appealing
TO French investors not to make fur
Their advances to Russia and deelar
ing that the war reserves may brint
on depression in Russian securitie
which may prove a greater blow t
French investors than the bursting c
The Panama bubble.
Russia may yet place new loans
But the process is growing more an
more difficult and costly, and the stu
alton at home is becoming more an
more ominous. The Jews, the F'inn
the Trans-Caucasans are reported I
be on the verge of united rebellion
The Agrarian movement is spreading
And the papers-long repressed-ar
breaking their bonds.
The world may not be expected,
the face Of all these facts, TO be great
Iy impressed by the dictum:
Russia will conclude peace on h'
ewn terms
SeIf-Made Men and COLLEGE