New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-28
WHO WILL BE THE REAL VICTOR?
To Be Cumberland She 49, "ha'
Russia. of Japan?

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: For more than a month before Ger
many took the bull By the horns and notified
the Anglo French Russian coalition OF her
willingness to discuss peace, there were signs
and portents aplenty OF important huctua-
tlons OF feeling In the chsncelleres OF Eu-
rope. 1t is a surprising fact that although
practically every metropolitan newspaper
published under bold scareheads few inches
apart the news OF the recent Cabinet revolt
against AsduIth and the hitherto secret agree
lmcnt 10 award Constsntnople to Russia, not
Ia solitary editor in the United states thought
of coupling the two cable dispatches to-
gethcr and "scooping" his fellows on the
actual "story Of the day What had been no
secret for months in many widely scattered
places upon the earth remained on Park Row
an unsupported sensation, an undiscovered
"beat" Upon the matter of awarding 70
Russia (of course, upon the principle Of
skinning the bear before II has been killed.
the worlds most valuable waterway, the OAR
danelles, many have thought that the Anglo
French Russian coalition would split.
The day that Winston Churchill was forced
out Of the British Admiralty men who have
given years to the study Of the Eastern ques-
ton suspected that which they now believe
actually happened. The changes in the Rus
sian high command and the southeastern
swing Of Russia's apparently most effective
CORPS and corps commanders strengthened
the suspicion. Some have even gone so far
as to imagine a connection between the sue
cessive collapse Of every Allied effort in the
Balkans and in the entire Near Eastern thea
tire Of war and the fact that many wise
men high in the councils Of England and Of
France dreaded anything which would com
NIT them definitely to action, one way or the
other. as to the disposal of Constantinople.
The point itself is no longer Of urgent
Importance for the moment merely, OF
course. The nephew Of Lord Salisbury is in
charge Of England's Foreign Office Lloyd
Georges Cabinet smacks in more ways than
one of high Tory imperialism; the decisions
will be more likely TO be influenced by Carl
ton Club sentiment than by Reform Club sem
timent Now, while il is true that toward
the end OF his life the most noble uncle OF
the present British Foreign Minister once
casually observed that, in the matter OF Rus
sla and Turkey and 70, England "had backed
the wrong horse" from that moment until
hi. death he moved neither a finger nor a
foot to vary from its traditional course Brit
ish policy in the Near East. When Mr.. Bal
four succeeded Lord Salisbury in the Pre-
miership and leadership of the Conservative
party. the present British Foreign Minister
with his cousin OF LansdoWne interpreting
the foreign policy Of the then Cabinet pre-
served continuity OF the traditional maxim
l"Keep Russia out of the Dardanelles and the
Persian Gulf"
Viscount Grey RESULTED the cards not
long after he became Foreign Minister under
Sir Henry Campbell Bannermsn. 1t remains
to be seen, however, how far he committed
himself to Russia. The Shuster incident at
Teheran was signifcsnt-it is not even yet
convincing testimony that Grey or the
Asduith ministry which had followed that OF
the Scots "knight of the jest" made up their
minds to purchase Russian friendship at the
cost of the key TO the huge imperial scheme
planned and pushed to partial completion by
the father Of modern British Imperialism,
BENJAMIN Disraei. England was still care
full TO hang on to the tail of Persia. Grey
concentrated all his great gifts in the effort
TO find light and safety in the darkness and
dangers Of the Balkan mudde. Undoubtedly
he was sparrng for time and for opportu-
nity but the fates and Germany's Bagdad
railway designs, inter-Balkan squabbles and
rivaries, duly financed and intensified By
ever-alert Berlin and Vienna observers, were
against him and proved too much for him.
Grey's eye was on Tibet when the crash
came. The finishing touch was TO be put to
the Greater India project prepared by the
lYounghusband expedition.
1--WE backed the wrong horse" said Sails
bury. thinking Of '7s, thinking as the lineal
descendant of William Cecil, the Lord Bur