THE RUSSIAN CATHEDRAL AT WARSAW.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—In your issue of April 7th (page 574) the proposed pulling down by the Poles of the Orthodox Cathedral is com- pared to destroying the Alhambra, because it is Moorish. The circumstances do not seem to me to be similar. The Orthodox Cathedral was put up by the Russian Government as a symbol of its domination over Poland at a time when the numbers of the adherents of the Orthodox Church in Warsaw did not justify the erection of a building on such a scale.
A better analogy would be : If the Spaniards had succeeded in the Armada enterprise and had erected in, say, Cheapside or Charing Cross, a large Roman Catholic church in the Jesuit style of architecture, with innumerable side altars, statues of saints, and so on. Is it to be supposed that in the event of the Spaniards being expelled from England, such a church would not have been destroyed ?
The Orthodox Cathedral was put up as a symbol of foreign domination, and its destruction will merely imply that the Poles recognize its symbolic character.—I am, Sir, &c., Travellers' Club, Pall Mall, S.W.1. C. SOKERS COCKS.
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