BRITAIN'S ALLIES

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2230, 17 August 1914, Page 7

BRITAIN'S ALLIES

A STRANGE SUCCESSION , SOME ANCIENT LEAGUES \ ■' Like poverty, International affairs make queer friendships, and in the history of war Great Britain has had a stranger asI fiortment of alliances than any other modern Power. This, says an Australian writer, however oynical it may seem at first stent, has ton inescapable, owing in the first place to the.traditional policy of sea-power imposed By' cimmstanoes upon an island nation, and through the Pjjiey to the acquiistidn of an incomparably far-flung Empire, and the great* frequently controlling influence exeroised by its possessora in' Sub councils of the nations. , It may be regarded as a settled developttent of history, so far as finality can be proclaimed anywhere in a vworld always spinning down the grooves of change, th\t dynastao wars on a' great scalo have elided. Yet formerly, when kingship counted for so muoh among the unaWocratised nations, and "kings made war upon commodity, dynastio strife often convulsed the world, and Britain was invariably engaged in the greater wars On this account;; .Not to go further back, early in the eighteenth century she allied with Austria, Holland, and other States against Spain and France, and fought on and off through, twelve years to prevent the grandson of the King of trance becoming King of Spain; the end of it being that the Prenoh Prince did succeed to the disputed ohair. Then thers were the home ware about the house of" Stuart—regarding whioh. a philosopher hae remarked that the BrigUßh'killed a king in good tune, whilo Fianoe too long delayed the inevitable ugly operation. , Later, England and Austria joined again, this time ngauist franco and Prussia on a question of the succession to the Austrian throne, over which there was about five years of' w.%r. This war is peculiarly interesting to recall now, as the only one within his. torical recollection iq which England Was opposed to the Prussians, the makerß of modern Germany. Not long after it the British were leagued with Prussia in a seven; years' war against FranoO, Russia, Sweden, and Alistria-apparently for' no other, reasons-than-that Prussia heeded assistance, and that the balance of power' was" probably in danger. During that century, also, there were several wars With Spain,, and the beginning of that tntohty conflict with Franco, which lasted intermittently until Mm downfall of Napoleon. . A Chain of Wars, "The Wood*' oentttfyj" that has been hot inaptly called.; Its euocessdr saw Britain, help destroy the Turkish fleet for the ndependence of Greece, and then bombard Aore to restore Turkish rule in Asia Minor—not toßpeak of the Crimean War, In which, as Lord Salisbury, coldly sikM half a century later, Britain "backed the wrong horse." Throughout last century the British were fighting in one quarter of the world and another, largely to disphargo the responsibilities•' of Empire. The great, struggle for dominion in India had to be waged. The Ashantis. th» AbySsiniahs. the Maoris, the Zulus, the !Boers, and the Sudanese were encountered. There were wars with China and Persia. And once a Japanese town was bombarded. ,/ America and Franco, That old friends make the most desperate enemies is an old eaying Its converse, according to the testimony of tho present-day evidences, is that old enemies nvike the best friends. Thus.for centuries, franca and Spain were regarded as Jaiglands hereditary foes, but to-day are its allies. The end of the revolution<toy war in iAmerica saw the United States upnsen.ias a jew and formidable force, whose outstanding sentiment in external policy was bitter hostility against England and dlose sympathy with the other great Republic, Prance. Tot. the Americans hate fought Prance, and immediately the Civil War was oleared' with, warned French armies out of Me'xieo,- As Another example of International convolution, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States, believing that thereby he was strengthening an enemy of Great Britain, and French, statesmtnship thought it saw in the cession of Canada the oreation of a new force which would soon deolnre its independence and make Ei'gland only "the Transient Trustee of North. America, commissioned to trausfer it ■ from France to a new nation/' But to-day, over a century and a half later, Canada is about the readiest, as it is the best able of the outlying British countries to offer service in a. war vherO Britain is allied with Franco, and .tho United States has long recognised rhat its deeper notional interests maroh with those of\the Bri. tish.: ■ ■. , Allied with Ancient Foes. At present Britain is allied in Europe and Asia with ancient foesj but there is nothing stranger in that than in the fighting friendship of Germany with Austria, her, earlier victim; or in the inclusion of Italy in the Triple Alliance with Austria, her former despoilerj or in German patronage of-. Turkey, for whom French blood was so freely shed in tho Crimean war. Since no one kuws what a year may bring forth internationally, no one who 's at all cautious will prophesy ttborat it. Circumstances have always complicated relationships, and will do eo until (If ever) tho war-dnim ceases to tbiob—though even then the incalculable hotoh-potch will probably continue in diplomfttio form. Evidences of permanency are discernible, however, in the sustained loyalty of the British Empire. The Emprro has undergone no losses through secession or (with the remote instance of India) se'riously attempted secession, and its record of uninterrupted homogenoity is unparalleled And we may not conceit ourselves in adding to all this the United Statos'S ever-growing recognition of a British community of interest. THE LABOUR CONTINGENT OFFER DENIED. The "Lyttclton Times" states that Mr. F. C. Ellis, of the Trades Hall, Christohuroh, telegraphed to. Mr. A. Rosser, Labour leader in Auckland, asking if a Press Association message that a Labour contingent Would be enrolled in Auckland was true. Mr. Kosscr has replied! "No Labour contingent has been offered in Auckland. The statement is incorrect, I.denied ii at a meeting last nieht."