Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, OCT. 28, 1899. War—Who With ?

Manawatu Herald, 28 October 1899, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, OCT. 28, 1899. War—Who With ?

The cable news sent on Wednesday from London is of serious import, viz., "all cruisers mobilised for manoeuvres are preparing to be placed on com* mission. The naval preparations now in train are so obviously beyond the necessities of the South African difficulty that it is an open secret that the British Government fears grave complications with other Powers before many weeks are past." That something like this was approaching might have been forseen a week or two ago by the actions then taken by the Defence authorities at Home. We were informed that the Army Corps to be sent from Aldershot was to be replaced by another Corps, which was only in accordance with custom, but the news told us that this Army Corps was to be supplemented by another, which was certainly piling on the preparations beyond custom. Then the note was sounded for calling out the Army reserves and mobilising the Militia at points, which for precaution against a Power that had no fleet looked very peculiar. The last warning appeared in the statement that the troopships carrying the Army Corps to South Africa were to be conveyed by war ships as far as the Bay of Biscay. Now we have the open confession that war with another Power may occur within the next few weeks. . Our readers will probably call to mind that for the last two years the air has been full of rumours of wars, and it was feared that the outbreak in any part of the world between any two Powers would be bound to embroil the whole of Europe, and it looks as though the trouble in the Transvaal will be the means of starting one of the biggest struggles that has occurred in the history of the world, the heaviest brunt of which will fall upon the British Empire. It has been this unknown, but felt, danger which has spurred Britain to put her navy into order, and if fight we must for our own rights and that of the civilised world, for freedom and independence, then there has been no time in our history when Britain has been so prepared beforehand.

We now come to the consideration as to what Powers are most anxious to humble the pride of the British Empire. In the " National Review " for August there appeared an article by

" Ignotus " as to the coming together of Germany and France, in which he quotes a saying of Cavour's, uttered fifty years ago " that a united Germany would arise to disturb the European equilibrium, and that the new State would aim at becoming a naval power to combat and rival England upon the seas." To show that the German Emperor holds an anti-English policy he states, "it is notorious that at the time of the Jameson Raid he sounded France and Russia as to a joint nite Erected against England." After Fashoda the German press has been vitriolic towards England, and attempts have been made to break up the close friendship between the British and the Russian Royal Families, and also to embroil the United States and England. The Writer further states that since Fashoda France and Germany have worked together* and he declares the ascertained fadt 10 be by common action with France to show that the two States have generally identical interests, and to form ultimately a great coalition to be used first against England or the United States, and in the remote future against Russia. But Russia will, at first, be taken into the German firmi Monsieur Ernest Daudet states that it is no longer Germany who is the enemy of France, but England. She despairs of regaining Alsace-Lorraine, and she is eager to extend her colonial empire. She distrusts Russia. " tg* notus " sums up the position by saying that Germany, to secure the goodwill of France, must compensate her in Europe for Alsace -Lorraine. On the French frontier is Belgium — with its annexe the Congo Free State ; and on the German frontier Holland— with the very desirable annexes Of Cufacao and the Dutch East Indies. Belgium has always shown strong French and Republican leanings ; Holland is close akin to Germany. Considerations of 1 race and geography can thus be fitly invoked. No Power could intervene* I for England is far from possessing the military strength required to enforce her will against such a combination, and indemnities might be discovered to satisfy Russia. M. Urban Gohier in the succeeding number of the " National Review " takes up the discussion and declares that it is not merely territorial or mercantile interests that are at stake, but the highest political and moral issues which will decide the character of our common civilization during the approaching century — on the one side liberty, justice, and progress ; on the other, political servitude, oppression, and reaction. Against England and against liberty the Holy Alliance of reactionary Governments and the Roman Catholic Chufch are ranging themselves. The chosen chief of the Holy Alliance is the German Emperor, while the Roman Catholic Church, dominated by the Jesuits, whose " General " is the real Pope. Curiously enough this very year the Jesuits have been officially recalled to and rein- j stated in Germany, whence they had j been expelled. The coincidence is suggestive. The writer says that the French nvlitary hope for a war against England, because they are aware of their inability to sustain a struggle with Germany, and yet regard war as the only escape from the cesspool of crimes into which they have plunged. 1 The French clerical party desire a war ' with England in the hope of destroying that home of free thought, free criticism, and free discussion, which sets such a deplorable example to all men if independent mind. Owing to . its discipline the Army is a possible ' instrument in the hands of its chiefs, who are almost all in the hands of the Roman Catholic priesthood, who, in their turn, take their marching orders from the Jesuits. . For though nominv ally expelled from France in 1880, the Jesuits are to-day more formidable j than ever before. On the eve of the j Revolution which suppressed the j monastries, the monks numbered less than 40,000 ; they have now risen to 200,000, and own £400,000,000. The Jews, continues, this writer, are the first game marked down for destruction by the Roman Catholic Church, but they will not be the last. After the Jews it will be the turn of the Protestants. The chief agents, in the " Affaire Anglaise " are the Petit Journal " and the various issues of " La Croix." The latter is the property of the Fathers ot the Assumption. The London Times discredits the alarming reports of a Continental combination against Great Britain, so the latest cables tell us, but we may accept the statement with more than the customary grain of salt, and look upon it as being suggested to avoid any appearance of panic. That there is a great deal more disturbance than is evident to the general public is certain, judging by the extraordinary precautions being taken. We have the bare facts given us of the troopships being conveyed as far as the Bay of Biscay, in other words past the French naval port of Brest, and then that the Mediterranean fleet has assembled at Malta, which is the British headquarters of that fleet and the principal coaling station in the Mediterranean. It .is further proposed to send the Channel fleet to Gibraltar. On the Ist December last the Mediterranean fleet was composed of 11 battleships, 8 cruisers, 7 torpedo-boat destroyers, 5 torpedo boats, 3 gunboats and 6 sloops, besides other smaller vessels, a sufficient force one would say in those waters for all the Boers could do there, yet it is purposed to send 9 battleships, and 5 cruisers to Gibraltar ! The East Indian squadron is ordered up to the Persian Gulf, which is situated between Arabia and Persia, and a vantage ground to intercept any hostile cruiser or fleet that might manage to get d^wn the Suez canal for either Africa or India. There is one other object to guard, the submarine telegraph cables of the Indian government which traverse the whole length of the Gulf, connecting with the systems of Persia and India. The East Indian fleet consists of 4 cruisers, 3 gunboats, 1 torpedo boat and 3 coast defence boats. There is, we believe, an understanding with Italy that she would join with Great Britain in any European war, or that she would sell her fleet, and it is of consequence to notice that the movements of the British fleet have reacted on the

Italian fleet, the squadron being concentrated at Spezzia, the principal naval port of Italy, owing to, so the cable news says, the movements of the French fleet on the Levant, or in other words, the east coast of the Mediterranean including Greece and Egypt, and of the movements of the Russian Black Sea fleet. The Black Sea at one time was closed to ships of war, but in 1870 the Russians Repudiated the agreement and the neutralisation of the sea was abrogated. The BosjfuurUs and Dardanelles are still closed to ships of war other than Turkish and Russia, but the sultan c.a open them at need to allies. We much regret that the movements of the fleet and the military energy at Home, besides the proposed mobilisation of the reserve fleet, makes the rumours which the Times discredit to be more than probable;