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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5038, 17 May 1877, Page 2

The telegraphic intelligence from London received by us at half-past 10 o'clock last night, and published elsewhere, is more important than if it conveyed the news of half-a-dozen battles fought and won. The position of England in the present contest is of far higher signilicance for us than the record of fighting between Russian and Turk. A previous telegram had told us that the British fleet had been ordered to Port Said, which was exactly what we anticipated, it may be remembered, at the time it made its rendezvous at Crete. And tho present telegram fully explains this action. England will observe the neutrality she has promised from tho outset. The Tsar may thunder at the gates of the Khedive, or threaten his coasts. The half vassal, half monarch, who rules Egypt, by his announcement of active sympathy with tho Porte has invited either course. England will not interfere. But the moment the passage of the Suez canal seems in clanger, she will have something to say in the matter. This is in exact accord with her declarations as to the Bospborus and the Dardanelles ; and it gives, by its firmness and its explicitness, all the more hope that the mother country will not be drawn into the war. It will not be England's fault should she be. Her attitude is perfectly comprehensible, and should she have to draw the sword, the Power compelling her to do so by its acts cannot plead ignorance of the consequences it has invited. The rejection of Mr. Gladstone's motion by an overwhelming majority, and the affirmation without a division of Mr. Woolfe's, shows that tho English Parliament and nation arc prepared to support the attitude of their Government.