A New Era—The Russian Ideal—The Trick of Double Nationality—Lord Kitchener's Legacy—The Armenian Inventor—The Kaiser and Double Nationality—The Future of Prussia—Russia's Hope of Victory—Germany's Influence on Anglo-Russian Friendship—Days of Suspicion—Lord Clarendon's Opinion—An ex-Cabinet Minister's Boast—Russian Memories of England—A Glorious Future


At the time I left England in May, 1914, there was, of course, no thought of the coming calamity. I wished to return in the autumn of that year to follow my usual habit of spending the winter in London; but the declaration of this unexpected war changed all my plans, and I remained in Russia, returning in the late autumn of 1915.

It has been a great happiness to me to see how the friendship between England and Russia has become realised, and how with all the sufferings and mutual anxieties it becomes stronger day by day. The idea of an Anglo-Russian alliance has inspired me a good portion of my life. It is what I have worked for—my dream, my ideal.

The war takes an intolerably long time and is a great strain. The sacrifice of men is terrible; the cost unprecedented. We have undergone much and lost much. Our Russian soldiers are equal in {287} bravery to the British, the French, the Belgians and the noble Serbs. We are inspired by the same high ideal, and therefore we must win. The new conditions of warfare have horrified the world—the suffocating gases, the atrocities, the diabolical machinery. Our task is not easy, but I do not think anyone in Russia doubts the final result. In spite of the new German weapons, the terrible cost, the German intrigue and corruption, and the tremendous sums that must have been secretly economised by Germany for the purpose of bribery, we shall win.

Then there is the German trick of double nationality—the becoming naturalised in Russia or England and yet retaining allegiance to the Emperor Wilhelm. I rejoice to notice that Great Britain is dealing with that so wisely and energetically, not, I believe, recognising nationality obtained within the last ten years.

Perhaps one of Lord Kitchener's most valuable legacies to his country may be his advice that no Germans should be given naturalisation papers in England for the next twenty-one years. The whole system of naturalisation in general is never a good or praiseworthy one. It kills real patriotism. Why can one not abolish it entirely in the whole world? We cannot at will take a new father or mother and break all the ties God and nature have given us—why then a new nationality? The habit of becoming a naturalised subject of some adopted country is most common among Germans, their Government rather encouraging the practice than otherwise, but not allowing naturalisation abroad to interfere in {288} any sense with the full rights of citizenship at home. This, of course, creates the great evil of double nationality that has done so much harm, among others to countless Russian subjects of German birth or parentage. The legalisation of the practice was accomplished soon after the Franco-German war of 1871, but it was kept quiet and very little was heard of it. I should like to quote an example of the harm done by this pernicious system.

A talented Armenian had invented some important novelty in connection with naval matters. For some reason no one took any interest in him in Russia, and his life's work seemed unlikely to achieve any result. In despair, he turned his steps to Berlin. There he was immediately appreciated, but as, by the German law, the Government cannot finance the enterprises of any but its own subjects, my poor Armenian, after much hesitation and grief, and with the permission of the Russian Government, became a German subject. Thereupon the German Government bought his invention, largely rewarding and providing for the inventor—only, however, after his official naturalisation as a German subject.

Some time after, this same Armenian, having lost all his means, and having suffered much from illness ana other troubles, set to work and tried his luck in London. Here, however, his double nationality brought him nothing but trouble. Germans, in spite of his naturalisation, regarded him as a Russian, and Russians, since he had chosen to become a German subject, considered him a German. Neither the one nor the other would help him, and he was driven to despair and starvation.

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The German Emperor has caught at the system of double nationality, and has done all in his power to create confusion in this connection. It is as though he had wished above all things to revenge himself on those of his former subjects who have adopted Russia as their country, and have become naturalised there. He has, by legalising the practice, sown discord and mistrust between the German Russians and the people among whom they might have continued to live peaceably and happily. Is not this the action of a wicked foe?

One of my friends, an experienced and clever judge, recently returned from the front, expressed himself to the effect that Wilhelm had dragged his hapless country into a state of Satanism and had everywhere sown dissension and bribery and evil and sorrow. This is indeed a fact and a danger of which by now not only Russia, but also France and England are convinced, and this very conviction has drawn the Allies more closely together, uniting them by an indissoluble bond, as they fight side by side in this war of liberation and self-defence.

Prussianism deserves merciless punishment, and a radical cure for its mad and boundless greed and ambition. Prussia must be forced back to its former modest dangerless limits. All the mischief done by and since '71 must be undone, and their military system destroyed once and for all.

Some people pretend that Prussia should be returned to the limits not only of the year '71, but to those of the Paris Treaty. I hardly think that so drastic a measure could be carried through. But of course we may remember that Berlin has {290} been once invaded by Napoleon, and that the same victories could be repeated in our time.

This is par excellence a war of good against evil. The good must always triumph—we must only be patient, stand loyally side by side, and struggle, struggle, struggle on to the end!

In spite of all, we shall win. On our side are—(1) Belief in the cause; (2) Faith in God; (3) Faith in the Emperor; (4) Faith in our Allies; or, to put it shorter, in the words of the motto of our Army, "Snami Bog" ("God is with us").

We sympathise deeply, too deeply for words, with England, and appreciate all she is doing. Our enemies, of course, have done their best to shake our confidence in each other. That is only natural, but we know that, but for the British Fleet, the Germans would have passed through the English Channel and invaded the coasts of France; that our Baltic shores would have been in greater danger; and that the German trade would have continued. We know what the British Army is doing, and we view with deep compassion and fellow-suffering the losses which it has suffered in Gallipoli, chiefly for our sake. We follow with deep sympathy Britain's Roll of Honour.

My personal belief is that our friendship will survive all strains, and will persist into the coming time when, with God's help, peace in Europe will be restored for many, many years.

MYSELF WITH MY FAITHFUL MAX AT BRUNSWICK PLACE, N.W.
MYSELF WITH MY FAITHFUL MAX AT BRUNSWICK PLACE, N.W.

It is now very interesting to look back and trace the growth of the understanding between Russia and England that developed into an Alliance. Symptoms of Russophobia began to disappear {291} about the middle nineties. Once the Indian north-west-frontier bogy disappeared, my mind became easier. Anglo-Indian suspicion has been not a little responsible for the breach.

The change was largely due to the rise of Germany. In the old days there was only one continent where the shadow of a European Power fell across the English doorstep. As Russia was that Power she monopolised alike the attention and suspicion. What puzzles me most is, how it has been possible for a nation that has shown itself almost uncannily suspicious of Russia, to permit Germany to make all the preparations she has made, and which for years it has been known she was making, without suspicion. British ministers became quite cross at the mere suggestion that Germany's aims were not entirely pacific, as if a man builds a Dreadnought for Cowes, or a submarine for Henley. Sometimes politicians seem to me very silly.

I remember Charles Villiers once writing to me that "in England there is a disposition to believe that Russia is an enemy of Liberty and a sort of ogre that goes about looking for sickly people to swallow them up."

This is exactly what England did believe for very many years. Nothing Russia did could be right. If she appeared to be actuated by high principles, people sought for some hidden motive; if, on the other hand, they could trace self-interest, then they contented themselves with saying that it was just what was to be expected from Russia.

There were, of course, exceptions to this rule. Charles Villiers himself, in that same letter, added {292} that he was not a party to so ridiculous a belief. Later, Lord Clarendon wrote to me expressing disbelief that Russia would go to war with Turkey; but in his mind there was the same suspicion of her actions. "That she should," he said, "see with the utmost confidence and resignation troubles excited in the East by others I think very likely indeed, and I cannot believe that the Prince of Serbia would make these preparations for exciting war unless he had the sanction of Russia. Russia may perhaps say with a safe conscience that she did not advise such measures, but can she declare that she ever said one word to disapprove or check them?" If she had done so, or would even now exert her authority, the Prince would become as tame as a mouse.

"I am not one of your category who 'cares not a straw for Russia,' for I know what vast elements of greatness she has, and that if she gives herself to develop her resources and consolidate her power, and does not yield to the lust of conquest, she must be the greatest nation of the world."

I quote these words because Lord Clarendon was in every sense a man who thought carefully before expressing an opinion, and it is easy to see even in his words some suspicion of Russia.

Another cause for the gradual change of public opinion that for some years past has been manifesting itself in England, is that Africa has displaced Asia in the international arena, and that over British Africa Russia casts, and can cast, no shadow, whereas other nations have been treading with heavy foot upon England's colonial toes.

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No nation can be on bad terms with all its neighbours, as Germany will have good reason to know in the very near future, and the rising menace of German ambition synchronised with the lessening of the tension between Russia and England. The national danger for England had shifted to another zone.

Twenty years ago I wrote:

"It appears as if, at last, Englishmen were really beginning to understand that Russia is a sister nation, which is as great by land as England is by sea."

As I write I call to mind a dinner-party, at which an ex-Cabinet Minister, obviously wishing to frighten a foreigner, somewhat pompously remarked:

"You have no idea of the great power which England represents by her fleet. No other nation is a match for us."

He may have been right, but the tone amused me, and I said in reply:

"So much the better. It is a new argument in favour of my beloved scheme—the Anglo-Russian Alliance. Our army stands to us in the same relation as your fleet to you, and in case of need might supply your military deficiency. On the other hand, your fleet might perhaps work in union with ours. But even putting aside an offensive or defensive alliance of this kind, there is one fact which is clear—left to themselves, England and Russia, having such different weapons, cannot fight each other."

If I had ventured this as a prophecy instead of an ideal how I should have been laughed at; yet it has been realised, and the British Navy and the Russian {294} Army have been united at last. No matchmaker ever had more trouble in bringing together a self-conscious youth and coy maiden than those who have fought so long and so hard to bring England and Russia together.

Again, there was always that tend............