Weary, sick at heart and indignant I shall say it, in
my own name and in the name of those who have died, suddenly or
mysteriously, for the Franco-Russian cause.
Any one who followed carefully the successive events of the performance
given under the direction of M. de Staal, any one familiar with the
secret manoeuvres that led to the convening of the Peace Conference,
could have had no difficulty in predicting what its end would be. From
some of these secret manoeuvres in the wings, I propose to lift the
veil; my readers will then be in a position to understand more clearly
why it is that the truly Christian act of the Tzar (apart from certain
unimportant improvements of the Brussels Convention) did not attain the
result which might have been expected from the initiative of a powerful
and generous sovereign.
For the past year we have repeatedly been told, in more or less
sensational revelations, that the influence which chiefly determined
Nicholas II in his action, was his reading of a famous book on war by
M. de Bloch. This is no doubt true and the fact may be admitted. Much
moved by the eloquent description, given by the great financial writer
of Warsaw, of the heavy burdens imposed on the nations by the
extravagant armaments of the Continent, and terrified at the thought of
the calamities which the next war would let loose upon all Europe,
Nicholas II, full of Christian pity for the sufferings of humanity,
directed Count Mouravieff to send the famous circular to the Powers,
which resulted in the convening of the Hague Conference.
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