‘Not to Exploit, Sir, but to Help’
Herbert Bury believed that it was the British way to profit with another country, not to profit from it.
1915
King George V 1910-1936
Herbert Bury believed that it was the British way to profit with another country, not to profit from it.
1915
King George V 1910-1936
In 1912, the Lena massacre in Russia saw 250 gold miners shot during protests over low wages and harsh conditions in a mine backed by British money. Investors were ashamed when they learnt of the systematic exploitation, and Herbert Bury assured Tsar Nicholas II that decent Englishmen wanted Russia’s people to prosper.
abridged
I FELT a very thankful man, proud of my country and nationality, when, a year ago, I could say to the Emperor of Russia, “My countrymen are in Siberia,* sir, not to exploit but to help to develop Russia’s resources and its people.” “I know it,” he quietly said. And I gave him the following instance to show him how rapidly and on what a large scale this is being done.
Some distance to the left of the line which runs down from Samara to Tashkend in Turkestan,* and not far from Orenburg itself, only reached at present by motor-car and camel, is a place called Tanalyk,* an English property. Not much more than a year ago there were there a British engineer, surveyor, and assistants, with a little handful of nomads looking on and giving their labour. They were engaged in prospecting, and drilling for copper. Now, even in this short time, the preliminary work of a great mine has been begun, and there are from eighteen to twenty thousand Russians engaged in it.
See Wikipedia: Siberia, and Google Maps: Orenburg.
That is, Tashkent in Uzbekistan. Samara railway station was opened in 1876, and trains south to Orenburg began a year later. An extension completing the link from Moscow to Tashkent was opened in 1906. See Google Maps: Samara to Tashkent.
Near present-day Baymak in the Republic of Bashkortostan, southern Russia, in the upper streams of the Tanalyk River. See Google Maps: Baymak, Orenburg and Ufa.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
What made Bury proud when he looked at English involvement in Russia?
They developed rather than exploited the country.