Introduction
In January 1878, John Bright MP addressed a meeting in Birmingham on the subject of Russia. Russia and Turkey were at war over Turkey’s treatment of Christians in the Balkans, and there were those in Parliament who said it was ‘in the British interest’ to support Turkey and clip Russia’s wings; but Bright thought that Russian aggression was a Foreign Office myth.
NO nation, I believe, has been in disposition more friendly to this nation than Russia.* There is no nation on the Continent of Europe that is less able to do harm to England, and there is no nation on the Continent of Europe to whom we are less able to do harm than we are to Russia.
We have India, and men tell you that India is in jeopardy from Russia. You persuade the people of India by the writings of the press and the speeches of public men in this country, that we run great hazard from the advance of Russia, and if you have enemies in India of course you feed their enmity by this language, and you make them, if they wish to escape from the government of England, turn naturally and inevitably to Russia as the Power that can help them.* The interest of this country with regard to Russia in connection with India is an unbroken amity, and I am sure that that unbroken amity might be secured if we could get rid of the miserable jealousy that afflicts us.*
* Bright’s friend Richard Cobden was of the same opinion, and had expressed it more than twenty years earlier. See Misreading Russia.
* Journalist William Stead issued a very similar warning after the Viceroy of India, Lord Lytton, unwisely launched a crackdown on India’s vernacular press that year, 1878. See Press Agents.
* Bright was clear in his mind on where this jealousy came from, the ‘deep state’ traditions of the Foreign Office. “I once expressed — I was very irreverent towards such an ancient institution — the wish that the Foreign Office some day might be burned down” he admitted during this speech; “and at least, correcting myself, that if it should be burned down, that I hoped all its mad, and baneful, and wicked traditions would be burned with it.”
Précis
In 1878, Victorian statesman John Bright assured constituents in Birmingham that Russia was a country eager for friendship with Britain, and far less of a threat to us than our neighbours. He dismissed fears of Russian interference in India, arguing that the British media’s hysterical Russophobia encouraged our opponents in India to assume that Russia was their ally. (58 / 60 words)
In 1878, Victorian statesman John Bright assured constituents in Birmingham that Russia was a country eager for friendship with Britain, and far less of a threat to us than our neighbours. He dismissed fears of Russian interference in India, arguing that the British media’s hysterical Russophobia encouraged our opponents in India to assume that Russia was their ally.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, if, may, must, not, otherwise, ought, who.
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