"August Niemann - Coming Conquest of England" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niemann August)

Alexandrovitch and Alexis Alexandrovitch, brothers of the late Tsar, accompanied him.
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The princes graciously acknowledged the deep obeisances of all present. At a sign from the Grand Duke
Michael, the whole company took their places at the long conference table, covered with green cloth,
which stood in the centre of the pillared hall. Deep, respectful silence still continued, until, at a sign from
the President, State Secretary Witte, the chief of the ministerial council, turned to the Grand Dukes and
began thus:--

"Your Imperial Highnesses and Gentlemen! Your Imperial Highness has summoned us to an urgent
meeting, and has commissioned me to lay before you the reasons for, and the purpose of, our
deliberations. We are all aware that His Majesty the Emperor, our gracious Lord and Master, has
declared the preservation of the peace of the world to be the highest aim of his policy. The Christian idea
that mankind should be 'ONE fold under ONE shepherd' has, in the person of our illustrious ruler, found
its first and principal representative here on earth. The league of universal peace is solely due to His
Majesty, and if we are called upon to present to our gracious Lord and Master our humble proposals for
combating the danger which immediately menaces our country, all our deliberations should be inspired by
that spirit which animates the Christian law of brotherly love."

Grand Duke Michael raised his hand in interruption. "Alexander Nicolaievitch," he said, turning to the
Secretary, "do not omit to write down this last sentence WORD FOR WORD."

The Secretary of State made a short pause, only to continue with a somewhat louder voice and in a
more emphatic tone--

"No especial assurance is required that, in view of this, our noble liege lord's exalted frame of mind, a
breach of the world's peace could not possibly come from our side. But our national honour is a sacred
possession, which we can never permit others to assail, and the attack which Japan has made upon us in
the Far East forced us to defend it sword in hand. There is not a single right-minded man in the whole
world who could level a reproach at us for this war, which has been forced upon us. But in our present
danger a law of self-preservation impels us to inquire whether Japan is, after all, the only and the real
enemy against whom we have to defend ourselves; and there are substantial reasons for believing that this
question should be answered in the negative. His Majesty's Government is convinced that we are
indebted for this attack on the part of Japan solely to the constant enmity of England, who never ceases
her secret machinations against us. It has been England's eternal policy to damage us for her own
aggrandisement. All our endeavours to promote the welfare of this Empire and make the peoples happy
have ever met with resistance on the part of England. From the China Seas, throughout all Asia to the
Baltic, England has ever thrown obstacles in our way, in order to deprive us of the fruits of our civilising
policy. No one of us doubts for a moment that Japan is, in reality, doing England's work. Moreover, in
every part of the globe where our interests are at stake, we encounter either the open or covert hostility
of England. The complications in the Balkans and in Turkey, which England has incited and fostered by
the most despicable methods, have simply the one object in view--to bring us into mortal conflict with
Austria and Germany. Yet nowhere are Great Britain's real aims clearer seen than in Central Asia. With
indescribable toil and with untold sacrifice of treasure and blood our rulers have entered the barren tracts
of country lying between the Black Sea and the Caspian, once inhabited by semibarbarous tribes, and,
further east again, the lands stretching away to the Chinese frontier and the Himalayas, and have rendered
them accessible to Russian civilisation. But we have never taken a step, either east or south, without