The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-02

tive relations 70 the Poles and define
them In a compact Undoubtedly both
Russia and Prussia are deeply interested
in the Polish question. Earnestly ne
both Powers have tried for more than "A
century "a assimilate their Polish sub
iects and 10 extinguish the hope of re-
storing Polish independence, they have
VIGOROUSLY failed, although both have
had corrce to the extreme expedient
Of forbidding the Use of their native
tongue to Polish children in the public
schools. Just at this time there is reason
10 "apprehend that a wave of agitation,
leading perhaps to instruction, may
sweep owe Russian Poland, provoked
by the reduction of Poland's represen-
alton in the coming Duma to an insig-
niticant number Of delegates. II has been
conjectnred that NICHOLAS II. desires to
obtain from the German ruler personal
promises that the latter will cooperate
in the suppression of a Polish uprising,
and that meanwhile he will use his good
Offices with his Austrian ally TO secur a
curtailment of the liberties of speech, of
meetiny and of the press which are en-
joyed by the Poles in Galicis, and which
have made Of that province a fomenter
Of disaffection throughout the extensive
region which once belonged to the king
dom of Poland.
Such surmises might he plausible but
for the fact that the first promise would
be superfiuous and the second futile.
The Emperor WILLIAM is known to have
pledged his word before or during Rus
sia's war with Japan that the Russian
troops usually stationed on the line Of
the Vistula might safely be transferred
TO the Far East, the Berlin Government
charging itself with the maintenance Of
peace and order throughout the bounds
of Russian Poland. There is no reason
TO doubt that the engagement then en-
tered into has since been and is still
looked upon as binding. For her own
sake Prussia could not permit a revolu-
tionary movement TO gain Roadway in
any section of the Polish people. As for
the intimidation of the autonomy pos
sessed by the Poles in Gslicia. Emperor
WILLIAM is too well informed to ask for
what his Hapsburg partner would be
powerless TO grant. In respect of local
self-government Galicia is in a position
similar 10 that of every other province
included in the Cis-Leithan kingdom,
and n infringement on the rights of
one would meet with the resistance Of
them all.
What, then, can conceivablv he the
subject of the approaching private con-
ference between the German and Russian
sovereigns, accompanied by their official
advisers? Apparently it can only relate
10 the Near East and to the respective
interests of the two rulers in that region.
Having renowned, temporarily at least,
the hope Of expansion on the Pacific
coast of Asia by her arrangements with
Japan, and recognizing the impractical
bility of invading India, in view Of the
alliance made between Great Britain and
the Toxic Government, Russia must now
necessarily revert, as we pointed out the
other day, TO her old dream of aggran-
dizement at the cost of the Ottoman
Empire. That dream may well seem at
last on the eve Of realization. if il be true, |
as it is reported in London, that the
British Foreign Office has signified ac-
quiescenoe in Russia's requirement of a
port on the Persian Gulf. To the pos
SCISSOR Of that coign Of vantage the east
ern section of the Sultan's dominions, |
embracing Turkish Armenia, Kurdistan
and Mesopotamia, would naturally fall.
How could such an accession Of terri
tory in that quarter on the part Of Russia
be reconciled with G%ermany's interest in
the Anatolia and Mesopotamia Rail
way? That, doubtless, is the important
political and economical question as to
which the Kaiser desires TO reach an
understanding with the Car.