p. 35 | The Eastern War-Cloud by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · BATTLE CREEK, MICH. · Jan 17, 1871

The Eastern War-Cloud.

By Editor

As we write, the fate of the proposed Conference at London on the Eastern question seems in doubt. The telegraph announces in vague terms that it has been postponed; but whether there is to be but a brief delay or the entire abandonment of the Conference, does not appear. The rock on which it threatened to split was a formidable one. France declined to participate unless her present government was first recognized by the other powers. We do not see how she could, with any self-respect, do otherwise. As her demand was not conceded, one of the parties to the original treaty of 1856 would have been unrepresented; so that it could not have been reconstructed with justice, or with security for the permanence of the new arrangement. The diplomats may have found a way out of the difficulty before this reaches our readers. But in any case, the situation is a delicate and dangerous one. The English press comments with great dissatisfaction on the attitude of Russia toward the Conference. Gortschakoff’s first note, announcing in effect that Russia held herself free from the obnoxious stipulation, has never been withdrawn or substantially modified. Though agreeing to a conference, Russia seems to have asserted beforehand as a right, the release which she was bound to ask as a concession. To negotiate over a treaty which one party in advance declines to comply with, is not a very dignified business, to say the least. The gain to the cause of public order by laying the matter before a conference, seems more a show than a reality.

We think that Russia’s conduct thus far indicates a very deliberate and settled purpose to gain her ends, and a very small regard for good faith. She has chosen her time well, and seems likely to carry off her prize with little difficulty, unless England is willing to fight. But is England bound by honor or duty to fight? It is one thing to say that Russia is in the wrong, and quite another to assert that it is England’s business to resist her by force. The fact that a compact has been violated, and wrongfully, stands by itself. Then comes the wholly separate question, whether the injured parties, or any of them, shall try to enforce it. If the real interest of England and of Europe be likely to suffer more from an Eastern war than it gained, we see nothing dishonorable in England’s remaining at peace. Why should a nation any more than a man, feel obliged to fight whenever it has received a wrong? If the matter is not in itself worth going to war about, and it is hard to believe that a second Crimean war would be of any use to the world—let England record her solemn protest against Russia’s infraction of justice, and leave the righting of it to time.

In point of fact, circumstances combine most unfortunately, to irritate English feeling. On the one hand, the nation feels itself snubbed by Russia, and very unfairly. Then, the sudden growth of German power evidently excites great uneasiness in England. The feeling may not be altogether honorable; but it finds a good deal of excuse in an arrogance which is unpleasantly manifest on the part of Germany. The menace to Luxembourg is one instance of this, and the sinking of the English ships at Rouen is another. The whole tone of the German press has been one of suspicion and dislike toward England from the beginning of the war. In addition to these things, is the exasperating consciousness that either a general inertness or the parsimony of recent administrations, has made the military resources of the country quite inadequate to the necessities of a sudden war. To these provocations must unfortunately be added a pretty general tendency on the part of the foreign press to taunt England with a want of spirit. This business of provoking wholly needless war by jeers and taunts is simply diabolical, and thoughtlessness is a wholly insufficient excuse for it. We trust that England will show herself brave enough not to go to war till there appears the gravest reason for it. That she is brave enough to fight, and to fight heroically, when she does see occasion for it, no sane man can doubt.—The Christian Union.