A COLONIAL VIEW OF A COLONIAL DIFFICULTY.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5129, 25 June 1885, Page 3

A COLONIAL VIEW OF A COLONIAL DIFFICULTY.

We take the following from The Week, a newspaper published at Toronto: —The Australians, if the report is true, are riolently and even dangerously exasperated against the Home Government for failing to prevent German colonies 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 prominent 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 in* habitants of a German colony they will remain subject. But what do the Australians expect P Do they expect that poor old England, with difficulties and enmities on her hands in all parts of the globe, besides the Irish rebellion, shall take by the throat the greatest military power in Emrope? Do they know that by Continental strategists the invasion of England is regarded as a feasible operation, and that merely landing an hostile army, even if it were ultimately destroyed, in that hive of wealth and industry, would oause incalculable ruin ? Can they doubt that 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 Gibraltar, that tbe United Stateß would forcibly settle all disputed questions in their own favor? Do they doubt that Canada would be placed in extreme jeopardy ? They could themselves do nothing to aid tbe mother country in the mortal struggle j a dependency taught to rely entirely on the Im perial country for protection is as helpless as a crab without a shell. The fancy still prevails that England is empress of tbe geap, and that over her water realm no enemy can pass. This idea was aptly compared the other day to the belief, which so-long survived the fact, that the French kingdom belonged to the British Crown. It is impossible that at the present day any Bingle 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."