Wanamatu Herald. SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1891. The Peace of Europe.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 2 May 1891, Page 2

Wanamatu Herald. SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1891. The Peace of Europe.

Though we live sixteen thousand miles away from Europe, yet science has so abridged space, and commerce has so entwined its dealings around us, that the actions of European powers are matters of very much interest to us. The death of the old veteran, Field-Marshall Von Moltke, may be, as his Emperor asserts, worse than the loss of an army. Men are to be had every day, but the head to guide them to victory, only once and again. The various causes of disquiet have been kept unsettled to afford an opportunity for the first Power who feels ready enough to use them, as a reason for war. Russia, always plotting to obtain the Ottoman Empire, thus gaming the key that Constantinople holds of the Black Sea, keeps up an agitation in Bulgaria. Austria is credited with a desire to obtain a larger portion of Poland, and France is still waiting to avenge Sedan, and obtain her two lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. Lately the President of the French Republic has bestowed the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour upon the Russian Ambassador at Paris, and the Czar of Russia has decorated the military attach^ of the French Legation. Then the President of the Republic has had bestowed on him the Russian Order of St. Andrew. These may be little things to make nations fear, but they are publicly announced to prove the ! more than friendly feeling of the two ] powers that hold Germany between i them. Nothing will be done until the weather has improved, and not

then, it is to be hoped, as these three powers cannot quarrel without drawing their neighbours into the fight. Germany evidently trusts to the help of England, and a heavy responsibility thus rests upon her rulers, as determined action on their part might have the effect of proving to the others that the time, as yet, was not opportune. If war should break out, the mass of men engaged therein will be enormous. The effective strength of the French army is stated to be 556,450 men, but on a war footing the army numbers 2 million men, with 188,801 horses and 8000 gunsi Her navy consists of 118 vessels with 30 in reserve, and has in addition a large number of unarmoured cruisers and troopships. She has 85,282 men and 1795 officers in her navy. The German army on a war footing amounts to 35,427 officers and 1,456,677 men, with 312,731 horses and 2,808 guns. With the reserves she can call out, Germany can place 8,350,000 men in the field, fully armed. Russia, on a war footing, has an army of altogether 2,151,000, with 3,400 guns, and her navy comprise 268 armed steam vessels, of which 82 are ironclads and 139 torpedo boats, with an armament of 1348 guns. Austria has for war, with the Landwehr an army of jof 394,284 men, with 2000 field guns and a navy of 157 vessels, of which 13 are ironclads. Turkey, though styled the "sick man" of Europe is capable of placing 800,000 men, all splendid so'diers, in the field, and has also a navy of 64 steamers, which include 15 ironclads. We have thus before us the fearful view that the rulers of EurSp may, at any moment, involve more than eight millions of men in mortal strife. For what ? If one wants a melancholy occupation, a bill could be prepared of the actual loss to each country arising simply from the mere withdrawing of this vast number from wage earning, then the loss by death from wounds and pestilence, then from the stoppage of the ordinary increase in the population, and these, with the costs of the munitions of war, would form a total that should dismay the most impetuous. The prayer " Let there be peace in our time O Lord " is one that should be fervently uttered by one and all.