The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1912-04-02
RUSSIAN WRITER
DEFENDS PERSIA
Maxim Cork Writes ScathingIy
of Governmental Injustice
in Iran.

LONDON, March l6.-Maxim Cork.
the celebrated Russian writer, has sent
the following letter to Mr.. Frederick
Whelan, honorable secretary of the
Persia committee, on the action of Rus.
STA in Persia:
81 am of opinion that the actions
of the Russian government in Persia
are nationally harmful to the Russian
people, quite apart from the fact that
they are inhuman in relation to the
Persian people. am doubtful whether
it would be possible, by means of court
martial and by executions, to secure
the Persian commercial market for
Russian capital, and L am convinced
that the Russian government is Great.
ing by its senseless brutality, new
and irreconcilable enemy in Persia for
the Russian people. However, the con.
duct of the Russian troops in Persia is
serving to strengthen the spread of
orthodox Pan-Islamlsm, which rejects
the creative ideas and principles fos.
tered in Europe, and in this way the
Russian government g actions are in
furious to the interests of European
culture.
Further, while the colonial policy
of contemporary Europe, inasmuch as
it is not ideally humanitarian, undoubt.
edly retards the growth of HUMANE
tartan ideals, yet England, even when
importing opium into China, together
with that poison took into the country
IDEAS of constitutionalism and indIvi-
dual freedom.
1--WE see today that while China
has not been destroyed by the smoking
of opium, it has, on the other hand,
been stimulated to greater vigor, and
IS being revolutIonized by the healthy
and creative ideas of the west, and is
now rebuilding it's crowded ant hills
on European basis, and is uniting it
self to Aryan culture. From this ex-
ample, one among many, we are con-
WINGED of the vital energy for good IN
herent in the creative ideas of Euro
pean culture, and in the capacity of
Englishmen for furthering those IDEAS.
"We see, also that while English
capital is forcing its way into Persia,
English public opinion recognizes the
necessity for establishing committee
for the protection of Persia, and that
in England not only is there society
FOR the study of eastern culture, but
also a special society for stuaying Per-
STA culture.
81 ask myself what things of great
price, what principles Of European
culture, have been taken by the Rus
sian government into those realms
which they have seized in Central Asia
-Khiva and Bokhara. What creative
influences of value can Russian sover-
eighty SOW in old Iran2
"The Russian government now
stands out in Europe as the only de-
fender of the principle of the despotic
power of the government over the in
dividual-the east has already recog
nized the destructiveness of that prin-
ciple.
"Russia will take great deal of
vodka into the PERSIAN markets, but /
cannot see what ideas useful to the
Persians the Russian bureaucracy can
possibly introduce, Finally, i think
that the seizure of Persia has been due,
not so much to the interests of Russian
capital as to the desire of the dynasty
of the Romanoffs to give their people
n new extension of territory and by SO
doing to commemorate the Booth an
niversary of their own establishment
in Russia. This tercentenary-as is
well known-is fictitious and this gift
will develop into source of misfor-
tune for the Russian people, for it is
impossible to believe that Persia will
reconcile herself to the ensiavement
which threatens her.