1908-08-03 FOREIGN RELATION AND THE NAVY

London Times, 3 August 1908, p. 8: FOREIGN RELATION AND THE NAVY (Excerpt of an interview with Stolypin). M. Stolypin expressed his great satisfaction with the good results done by M. Isvolsky, who had achieved two great things in the conclusion of the Conventions with Japan and with England, without either of which the foreign relations of Russia would have been in a much more difficult position than they are, happily, to-day. The Anglo-Russian Convention, for instance, enabled them to contemplate the Persian crisis with composure, feeling that the disturbances would be confined to the Persians, and would not in any way affect the relations of England and Russia. He said that at Reval it had been a great pleasure to make the personal acquaintance of the King of England, whose great tact he admired, and admired not less the accuracy of his information as to the past history of the negotiations between England and Russia.

I asked him about the Russian Fleet.

“I am going on with the building of our four battleships.”

“In spite,” said I, “of the opposition of the Duma?”

Mr. Stolypin replied to me, “the Duma opposed, but the Council of the Empire supported, the policy of naval construction proposed by the Government. Under our Constitution, when the two bodies of the Legislature differ, the Government is authorized to fall back upon the last legal vote, which is quite large enough to enable us to go on with the building of the ships this year.”