Page:The New Europe, volume 1.pdf/432

 started the diplomatic career of Stürmer." Mr. Miljukov declared that what was needed was a "judicial process of the kind taken against Suhomlinov." He denounced the interview of Mr. Protopopov (now Minister of the Interior) with Herr Warburg, a German attaché in Stockholm, and described it as "a business which belongs to the well-known corridor through which Protopopov, like many others, found his way to the ministerial chair. (Uproar. Cries: "Splendid. He means Rasputin." "What corridor?") I have indicated it already. Manuilov, Rasputin, Pitirim, Stürmer, all the Court party, for whom, according to the Neue Freie Presse, Stürmer's appointment was a victory — "the victory of the Court party which is grouped round the young Empress" (der Sieg der Hofpartei; die sich um die junge Kaiserin gruppiert).

Mr. Miljukov proceeded to marshal his charges against the authorities, confronting each with the question: "Was it folly or treachery?" After applying this to "the Roumanian blunder" and to the neglect of Poland, he concluded as follows: — "When the authorities try to cause disturbances, such as could later on serve as grounds for ending the war, and when the Court party, in the middle of a raging war attacks the only man who has gained our Allies' respect for honourable conduct, and replaces him with a person of whom one can say everything which I have said — then it is almost impossible to believe that it is folly, and one cannot blame people for reaching another conclusion. We have many grounds for being dissatisfied with the Government, but they are all to be traced to its incapacity and illwill. There lies our most deadly enemy. Victory over this evil thing would mean the same as victory in the whole war. And, therefore, in the name of the millions whom the war has claimed, in the name of the rivers of blood which have flowed, in the name of our struggle to realise our national aims, in the name of our sense of responsibility towards the nation which has sent us hither, we promise to fight on until we have attained our aim—a Cabinet which deserves the complete trust of the nation."

This resounding speech had a truly remarkable sequel. At the next sitting of the Duma the Minister of War, General Šuvaiev, publicly shook hands with Mr. Miljukov and thanked him, while both he and his colleague—the Minister of Marine—made speeches emphasising the achievements of the nation in the war. No less significant is the fact that Mr. Stürmer, who at first threatened to prosecute Mr. Miljukov, appears to have abandoned his intention and withdrawn with his family for a rest in the Caucasus. The "Anti-German Society of 1914" passed resolutions congratulating Mr. Miljukov and other speakers on their action, "which helped to put an end to the policy of 'Hofmeister-Oberkammerherr Stürmer.'" The struggle against the "dark forces" and "irresponsible influences" working in favour of Germany has, since then, become general, and the Council of the Empire and the Congress of Nobles have taken the same line as the Duma. But it was Mr. Miljukov's courageous speech that opened the floodgates which have swept away the late Premier and threaten to engulf his régime.