A STRANGE LETTER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1214, 5 June 1885, Page 3

A STRANGE LETTER.

In the face of the wil-l eagerness to join in isHvetraggle in the Soudan with which the Australian* have been credited, tbefol lowihl'communication from the current issue of T.uth reads somewhat strangely. The writer is a New South Welshman just arrived in London. He says “As one who has lived many years in Australia may I lie permitted to inform the British public of the true state of feeling among the m jority of native Australians in respect to the Soudan War and themselves ? The StuartDailey Ministry of New South Wales sent the troops from thence at their own instigation, ami not at that of the people. 1 need not. sir, refer to the gross, inaccurate, and imaginative messages of Reuter, the only an hority we have of Australian afflirs in this c uutry; but 1 venture to say that the report that the New South Wales troops embarked amid enthusiasm was a fahehood. It was proposed last September or Goto -er in Australia to semi troops to the Sonda», ami, as I was in that country, T can positively state that nine-ten h* of the people were against it. -Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia will never send any troops—that 1 can for certain pre licit; and the division in the House of Assembly at Sydney on the question of i hat Government sending troops shows that a strong feeling ex sts even in that Chamber—composed of squatters an i other wealihy men, who care not a jot for the country—against disturbing -the peai eof the colonies. Twenty fonr members virtually voted for the , recall of the troops ; and we may sa f ely estimate that as many more would have voted' against the expedition if it had not involved New South Wales in the ridiculous at titude of ■ vacillation, which would certainly,,- have, been rather infra dig. Let me state, sir. on behalf of nme tenths of the Australian people —*l do not count sham Australians,'moV. of them born in this country,•and-therefore having their.sympathies with.Ql»l ;Worl I. animosities—that they -do hot approve of theii Miniate-s offering help in l the sham - less Sou-lan War. We are a.-peaeefnl people ; onr country is the only one .pn the ear hj never y.-t cu-sed by war,,and wsh to live in peace with all races, 'hoj excepting Central Africans. The Soudan trouble is nothing to ns—it is an English affiir, not an Anstra'ian concern. Men holding power in Aus ralia are mostly English ; but, sir, wait unti the native born secures the upper hand, and the English people .will find that Australians wid not hejp and connive at wicked warn carried oh by the old nations, of Europe, whonre never happy except they are carrying bloodshed and ruin into distant C 'Unt'i‘-8.” I have heard Mr Archibald, of the ‘Sydney Bulletin,’ enunciate sentiments very similar to the aliove. The whole idea of sending troops, etc., origin ited, he avers, in the scheming brain of a Sydney s.titesmen, very anxious to securehm K.C.M.G, Th-re was no spa--m of loyalty whatever. The politician simply: playe 1 off ope rich colonist’s vanity against another's.. It A subscribed handsomely to the Patriotic fund B won'a do ditto; C wasn’t going to be outdone by D, nor R by F, and,, so the game was played. Whether this ho truieor not, one thing is'cert diij Mr Dailey will be raatle K..C.M.G,—“ Evening Star’s ” London Con capon-lent. .» ..