AMERICA AND THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 25 October 1901, Page 4

AMERICA AND THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE.

It seems absurd to say that the selfishness of America may destroy the Triple Alliance, but it Is not far from the truth. The German >ariff, which the Austrian Premier, Dr Von Koerbcr, has announced u endangering the Alliance, is to a very large extent a direct result of America's national policy of protection—the policy we have just approved in this out-of-the-way part of the world by agreeing to an eighteen months' contract with an exclusively American line of steamers. The Austria-Hungarian Chambers of Commerce have already been devising means of defence against America. Germany, however, has gone to extreme lengths, and made her tariffs entirely exclusive, not even excepting Austria. This declaration on the part of Germany was' entirely unexpected. In fact, at a recent sitting of the Austrian Government Department entrusted with the preparation of commercial treaties, the most influential representatives of agricultural interests unanimously passed a resolution declaring that they regarded the projected German Customs tariff as "the first step towards the union of the central European producers and the realisation of a convention for their mutual protection against the competition of trans-oceanic countries, and more particularly of the United States, on the basis of the general adoption of high duties." Evidently Austria had no suspicion of the real intentions of Germany, and it is easy to understand her consequent chagrin.