JOHN BULL, BUGBEAR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 293, 5 December 1908, Page 3

JOHN BULL, BUGBEAR

I THE REASONS U'I'HER NATIONS I FEAR US. . Did it ever occur to you that John Bull—the old gentleman in the lop-bouts who represents the British Empire—is an object of dread and suspicion lo more than lialf the other nations of the world? We Britons are so amiably disposed t " all our neighbours that we linn k dilli cult to imagine UiaL any of tiicm should suspect us of sinister designs against them. Also, be it hinted, we are rather too modest. Dismal prophets of home uiauufactui'H have so Irequcntly to.d us that our lighting capacity is far from

L . what it ought to be, that some of in L . have come to accept the statement with . out question; but outsiders do not agrct - with this view. The world at large re 1 gards the British Empire a s tile most I powerful in existence, and credits John , Bull witli all manner of hostile designs against them. L'litil a few years ago, Ureal Biicnin ' j was France's bugbear. Next to ourselves, France possesses far and away the best collection of colonics—more than 4,000.000 square miles of them, in fact. , There was hardly a Frenchman who did not believe that John Bull was only seeking a good pretext to smash the French navy and then take forcible possession of the French colonics. But the '•entente cordialc" has put an end to all such nightmares on the part of out friends on the other side of the Channel. There are many people in the United States who dread John Bull. This 18 ] mostly because Croat Britain is reallv ' the only European power who could ; make things unpleasant for L'nele Sam. ft is u ot generally realised that, though we hear so much about the bigness of the States, the American President is not the ruler who presides over the destinies of the largest extent of territory in the New World. That distinction be longs to King Edward. Square mile for square mile, Canada is larger than the (States. The possession of Canada would give (Ireat Britain a splendid ■'jumping oil" point in case she wished to invade

Anion™, and the \ankce licet is nut strong enough to stop the transport of British troops across the Atlantic. Ju addition, the possession of British Ciuitma makes Cleat Britain a Ceutr.il American State. Uncle Sam is supposed to he anxious to make himself the protector of the .South and Central American Kepublics, including Peru, Chili, and Venezuela—.the home of the gasconading President Castro. But the smaller Kepublics are not at all pleased at the prospect of anything of the kind, be. cause they are apprehensive that if they gave their big neighbour of the Stars and Stripes any right to interfere with them, Uncle Sam would proceed to keep them in order with the " big stick," to which President .Roosevelt referred iu a recent speech.

It is just possible that the future may see a war between the United States and the South and Central American Republics. Such a war could have but one ending—provided that John Bull did not take a part.

But if Great Britain chose to pour men ami guns into British Uuiana, and help the smaller Republics, there would be no telling how the struggle would end.

John Bull has for a long time been ii bugbear to Belgium and Hollandmost unjustly so, to our thinking, conI sidering that the old gentleman has befriended both of them handsomely in the past. But it would be a serious menace to our command of the sea if the ports of Holland were to be in tlie hands of a great European Power; and the subjects of Queen Wilhehnin.i firmly believe that we harbour designs. the ultimate object of which is to "scoop" their country into the net of the British Empire by main force. As to the Belgians, they are darkly suspicious,, and accuse us under theii breath of wishing to treacherously in ncx the Congo Free State—with whicii as a matter of •fact, we would not on: den ourselves at any price—and thei lianding their country bodily over ic France as u bribe to induce the Freii.-l people to acquiesce in our nefarious pro cecdhigs. Both Russia and Turkey have in tun regarded John Bull as a bugbear, am both for pretty much the same reasons Turkey has accused him of designin; formally to annex Egypt—which is stil nominally a portion of the Sultan's do minions—and then steal Arabia. It is of no use to tell the averag l'ussian that Circat Britain has a ver; small army. He smiles significantly an .-avs: "India!" To the Muscovite it ai pears certain that John -Hull could, i be wished, draw ,i limitless army fvoi the millions of bis Indian subjects, tin then pour it into the Tsar's dominion) lie is sUspecU'd of a design to drive th Russians out of Central Asia, and thu render impossible any invasion of Indi. A mvat ileal is talked and written : England about a Russian raid into lmlh lull in .St. Petersburg it is considere that there is far more chance of Joh Hull becoming the raider, and not tli Tsar.

Since King Alfonso married a Hritisli princess, the dons have changed thenopinions of us for the better. Hut it cannot be denied tliat at one time (ireat Britain was far from popular in Spain. We were supposed to entertain black designs against Ceuta, the Spanish possession on the coast of Morocco, win-U lies opposite (MbiMltar. The simple truth is that if -Mui- Hull were actually «uilty of all the charges alleged against liini by his neighbours lie wouhUie far and awav the greatest international pirate the universe ever knew.