The Potteries Examiner : — 1877-06-16 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

ANTI-RUSSIAN FANATICISM  A Member cf Parliament writes :—"There is a curious superstition in vogue among many of our countrymen, to this effect, that whenever fighting is going on in any part of Europe. or almost of the world. England is sure to be dishonoured or damaged, in some way, unless she joins in the fray. The Government having resisted the impulse, that came from one class, to form an alliance with Russia in order to fight Turkey, are now likely to be exposed to a pressure brought upon them by another class to form an alliance with Turkey, in order to fight Russia. For let us not attempt to disguise it from ourselves—togs to war against Russia would be to go to war for and with Turkey. It would be, in fact, to make ourselves once more the champions of the most execrable Government under the face of heaven, if we accept that of the King of Dahomey. It would be to help to bind again the yoke of oppression upon the necks of the groaning millions of the Christian subjects of the Porte. It would be to clasp hands with the men whose doings, we must remind our readers, are thus commemorated by Mr. Schuyler. Of Panag,urishta, he says From numerous statements made to me, hardly a woman in town escaped violation and brutal treatment. The ruffians attacked children of eight and old women of eighty, sparing neither age nor sex. Old men hail their eyes torn out, and their limbs cut off, and were then left to die, unless some more charitably disposed man gave them the final thrust. Pregnant women were ripped open, and the unborn babes carried triumphantly on the points of bayonets and sabres, while little children were made to bear the dripping heads of their comrades. This scene of rapine, lust, and murder continued for three days, when the survivors were made to .bury the bodies of the dead. The perpetrators of these atrocities were chiefly regula; troops commanded by liiifli-Pactia.' It is for the people of England to save their country from the crowning infamy of baring to fight for the Government wko, there Can be little doubt, authorised, and it is quite certain rewarded, these and similar horrors. The pretext that will be used, that is being used, to incite England to this, is the old panic fear and jealousy of Russia. England has no interest in defending Russia. In so for as she can be justly accused of ambition, persecution, or eruelty, let her be freely abandoned to condemnation. But it is impossible not to feel that the prejudices of many of our countrymen are leading them into gross and manifest injustice towards Russia. Many have followed with some care the progress of recent events and negotiations in connection with this Eastern Question, and so far as can be judged. Russia has on the whole behaved well throughout. She has shown the utmost anxiety I to work with England, and to follow her lead even I after she had received checks and rebuffs which might have excused some resentment. Yielding to British advice, she has relinquished one after , another if her claims, until they were at last I reduced to what the whole world acknowledged to have been the most moderate minimum that was admissible. And now that all efforts have failed, through the headstrong fanaticism and obstinacy of the Turks, setting themselves in defiance against united Europe, it is surely most unjust to say that Russia meant, and was bent upon war from the beginning.