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 meeting with English opposition or English intrigues.  To-day our frontiers march with the frontier of British East India, and impinge upon the frontier of Persia and Afghanistan.  We have opened up friendly relations with both these states, entertain close commercial intercourse with their peoples, support their industrial undertakings, and shun no sacrifice to make them amenable to the blessings of civilisation.