BRITISH AND FOREIGN NEWS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 7 September 1901, Page 4

BRITISH AND FOREIGN NEWS.

Spectator Summary. Trust y. Union. London, July 20. The managers of the great American “Trusts,” with their grand schemes and immense fortunes and overwhelming obviousness, hava roused American workmen to a struggle which, whatever the pretext is, is really one for power. Every telegram this work has been full of strikes some for wages, some for hour.’, and some for “union principles” only; bin the great central battle is between the steel Trust and the one hundred and sixty thousand workmen or so that it directly or indirectly controls. Tho latter insist that nonunionist men shall not bo employed, and as the managers cannot give way on this point, the battle is likely to be a bitter ouo. This time has been chosen because there are many contracts to be worked off, and because the fall in the price of shares which always follows a strike will greatly worry tho millionaires. We have little sympathy with either side, for the Unionist demand has tyranny in it, and the Trust makers are seeking monopoly, but we should say that on this occasion the capitalists would win. The Poor-law is not an American institution, and the capitalists can stand losses which would ruin the unions. Tho chance of the latter is in creating a panic among the feebler shareholders, but we fancy that im« mense blocks of shares are still in the hands of the very wealthy. Still, the revolt of the men exposes to the market an unanticipated risk which will check Trustmaking. RUSSIAN INFLUENCE IN THE BALKANS.

The uneasiness in the Balkans increases. The Bulgarian Treasury -is so empty that officials are not paid, and the Russian Government has been forced to advance a small sum, about £IOO,OOO, to meet the immediate necessities of the Prince’s Government. She lias also promised a further loan, if France will help her, of £3,200,000, with which it is supposed all roughness can bo smoothed. Of course Russia demands obedience in return for her money, and the Court of Yie ma is growing uneasy. The Hapsburgs are not concerned about Bulgaria, but they see, or think they see, Russia establishing her influence also in Servia, and that kingdom is strictly within their own sphere. There is, therefore, unrest in Vienna, which is not diminished by the rumours that Prince Ferdinand will marry a Princess of Montenegro, with, of course, the warmest Russian approval. Altogether, the undertaking between Austria and Russia, by which the Balkan Peninsula is kept in a kind of uneasy quiescence, seems to be in danger of cracking.

Commercial Depression in Germany. The depression in German industrial undertakings continues to alarm Berlin, and the National Zeitung endeavours to encourage the apprehension in a manner which for simplicity, at all events, is notewdrthy. It admits that “the activity of industrial companies is at present much restricted,” but thinks that a passing phenomenon; while though it is true all shares have fallen, and the next dividends will be bad, still those dividends will be fair when the low present prices arc considered. That is to say, though the shop is empty, there are people in the street, and they may come in; while though your property is halved, still 5 per cent on the half ought to comfort the proprietor. The Zeitung avowedly fears the catastrophe, and seeks to reassure itself and the public by saying that in England also there is much depression. We should have thought that the extension of losses to all countries would have made recuperation in any one country more difficult instead of less, but men in the German position arc always hoping that something will turn up. The most menacing sentence in the article is that credit has been granted far too easily, which, looks as if the banks were expected to suffer, as well as the industrial shareholders. If, the banks begin to collapse there will be a real panic, for it is on advances from them on realised capital that German industrial enterprise has recently been carried on. “ Credit,” as the Zeitung says, “ has been easy:” France and The Papacy. The Papacy is evidently reluctant to begin a contest with the French Government which might end in the suppression of the Ecclesiastical Budget. The Vatican has, therefore, while declaring that “it reproves and condems all provisions of the new law, which infringe the rights, perogatives, and legitimate liberties of the religious Orders,” allowed all nonrecognished Orders to apply for the authorisation demanded by the new law on Associations. They are not, however, to submit their old rules and statutes, but only “ a synopsis of statutes, answering to the various points of Article 3,” which the secular power may not consider sufficient. How, indeed, is it to tell with the original statutes that the synopsis agrees with them, or condems them at all ? The difficulty will strike the lawyers who guide the Ministry, and, though it will be surmounted, may occasion further tcorrespondonce. The submission of the Vatican is a new proof that the Papacy can be Jinfiaeneed by the civil power, and this even when the laws to which it directs obedience are formally “ reproved and condemned.”

Sergeant “What’s His Name” Again!

The defea’t of the “Mad Mullah” by the force of Somalis organised by Colonel Swayne was a really extraordinary feat of arms. The Mullah appears, from letters in The Times dated 10th, and 16th June, to have had at least 10,000 followers including 3000 cavalry, and it is evident from the fighting on 2nd June, when he attacked Captain Mae Neill’s laager, that at least a proportion of his men were daring soldiers. Though under the fire of a Maxim, numbers of them pressed forward to within fifteen yards of the defences. Yet this large force was defeated by Captain Mac Neil, and cut up and dispersed with a loss of immense

herds of oxen and camels by Colonel Swayne, Captain Mereweather, and Captain Bruce with less than 800 men. Yet these men, who six months ago were untrained savages, once trained, marched 800 miles, often at amazing speed, killed 800 of'the enemy, and destroyed the prestige of their chief. Some of the marches in pursuit were extraordinary, the cavalry and -camelnien once covering 100 miles in thirty hours, most of _ tfyem marked by actual and deadly skirmishing. The men, all black, were frequently so worn that they could not keep awake, and on one occasion were thirty hours continuously without food; It is pleasant to read such stories while reading for weeks on end of the way that the Boers outmarch us, and even when overtaken get away with comparative impunity.