THE PEACE PROPOSAL OF THE CZAR.
By order of the Emperor Nicholas, the czar of Russia, his foreign minister, Count Muravieff, placed in the hands of foreign diplomats at St. Petersburg, August 24, a startling proposal for disarmament of the nations. This note, which has awakened extraordinary interest, is as follows:— “The maintenance of general peace, and the possible reduction of the excessive armaments which weigh upon all nations, present themselves in existing conditions to the whole world as an ideal toward which the endeavors of all governments should be directed. The humanitarian and magnanimous ideas of his majesty the emperor, my august master, have been won over to this view in the conviction that this lofty aim is in conformity with the most essential interests and legitimate views of all the Powers, and the Imperial Government thinks the present moment would be very favorable to seeking the means. “International discussion is the most effectual means of insuring all people’s benefit—a real, durable peace; above all, putting an end to the progressive development of the present armaments. “In the course of the last twenty years the longing for general appeasement has grown especially pronounced in the consciences of civilized nations, and the preservation of peace has been put forward as an object of international policy. It is in its name that great States have concluded between themselves powerful alliances. “It is to guarantee peace that they have developed in proportions hitherto unprecedented their military forces, and still continue to increase them, without shrinking from any sacrifice. “Nevertheless, all these efforts have not yet been able to bring about the beneficent result desired,—pacification. “The financial charges following the upward march strike at the very root of public prosperity. The intellectual and physical strength of the nation’s labor and capital are mostly diverted from their natural application, and are unproductively consumed. Hundreds of millions are devoted to acquiring terrible engines of destruction, which, tho to-day regarded as the last word of science, are destined to-morrow to lose all their value in consequence of some fresh discovery in the same field. National culture, economic progress, and the production of wealth, are either paralyzed or checked in development. Moreover, in proportion as the armaments of each Power increase, they less and less fulfil the object the governments have set before themselves. “The economic crisis, due in great part to the system of armaments à l’outrance, and the continual danger which lies in this massing of war material, are transforming the armed peace of our days into a crushing burden, which the peoples have more and more difficulty in bearing. “It appears evident that if this state of things were to be prolonged, it would inevitably lead to the very cataclysm it is desired to avert, and the horrors whereof make every thinking being shudder in advance. “To put an end to these incessant armaments, and to seek the means of warding off the calamities which are threatening the whole world—such is the supreme duty to-day imposed upon all States. “Filled with this idea, his majesty has been pleased to command me to propose to all the governments whose representatives are accredited to the Imperial Court, the assembling of a conference which shall occupy itself with this grave problem. “This conference will be, by the help of God, a happy presage for the century which is about to open. It would converge into one powerful focus the efforts of all States sincerely seeking to make the great conception of universal peace triumph over elements of trouble and discord, and it would, at the same time, cement their agreement by a corporate consecration of the principles of equity and right, whereon rest the security of States and the welfare of peoples.”