THE ANNEXATION DIFFICULTY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1343, 21 May 1885, Page 3

THE ANNEXATION DIFFICULTY.

The Week, a newspaper published at Toronto, contains the following :—" The Australians, if the report is true, are violently and even dangerously exasperated against the Home Government for failing to prevent German colonieß from being founded in their quarter of the world. The German colonies need not do Australians much harm ; very likely they will hereafter be absorbed by the predominant race. Perhaps their population may straggle over to the English colonies, for one object of the Germans in expatriating themselves is to escape from the military system to which, as inhabitants of a German colony, they will remain subject. But what do the Australians expect ? Do they expect that poor old England, with difficulties and enmities on hei hands in all parts of the globe, besides the Irish agitation, shall take by the throat the Greatest Military Power in Europe 1 Do they know that by continental strategists the invasion of England is regarded as a feasible operation, and that merely landiDg a hostile army, even if it were ultimately destroyed, in that hive of wealth and industry, would cause incalculable ruin ? Can they doubt if the day went hard with England all her other enemies or rivals would seize the opportunity that France would commence aggressions in Africa and in the East, that Russia would force the Dardanelles, that Spain would demand Gibral'ar, that the United States would forcibly settle all disputed questions in their own favor ? Do they doubt that Canada would be plaoed in extreme jeopardy 1 They could themselves do nothing to aid the Mother Country in the mortal struggle ; a dependency taught to rely entirely on the Imperial Country for protection is as helpless as a crab without a shell. The fancy still prevails that England is empress of the seas, and that over her watery realm no enemy can pass. This idea was aptly compared the other day to the beleif, which so long survived the fact, that the French Kingdom belonged to the English Crown. It is impossible that at the present day any single Power should hold the empire of the seas. Colonies must moderate their expectations or there will be danger of the greatest of all calamities —a parting in anger from the Mother Country."