The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1889.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 58, 9 March 1889, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1889.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the -wrong that nesdo resistance, Jor t.ho futuro in the distance, And the good that we can ao.

The era of universal peace does not seem to c be near at hand, if we are to judge by the sounds of martial pre. paration which are going on among the nations of the earth. The latest in timation is that the British Govern.

inent propose expending twenty-one and a-half millions sterling in the con-

struction of seventy new war-ships ) and the urgency of the case is shown by the statement that thirty-two of these vessels are to be on the stocks within a year, and the whole to be completed by April, 1894. The expenditure of that vast amount of money will give a great impetus to the ship-build-ing industry iv Great Britain ; but that is a very questionable gain, when it is remembered that Peter will have to be robbed to pay Paul—in other words, that the taxpayers will have to boar the whole burden, and will, in addition, be called upon to subscribe the additional annual cost of equipping, manning, and maintaining those huge engines of destruccion. How much better it would be if the money spent in terrorising other nations were.devoted to the moral and material elevation of our own people ! The reflection is old and trite, but unfortunately no practical means has yet been found of giving effect to the sentiment.

There is, nevertheless, a growing disinclination among civilised nations to engage in warfare. Many men in exalted positions are convinced that war is wasteful, unnecessary, inhuman and unchristian ; but old custom and the influence of militarism are too strong to permit ot these opinions being projected into action. Mr Wrn. Jones, a "former Secretary of the Peace Society, who is now on a visit to New Zealand, holds credentials bearing the_ signatures, with commendatory inscriptions, of Prince yon Bismarck, Cardinals Manning and Antonelli, the Right Hon. John Bright, and other leading men ; while he was assured by Signor Mancini, late Minister for War in Italy, who died last year, that through the way having been prepared by the leaders of the Peace Society, Italy had been enabled to conclude 19 treaties of commerce containing clauses for arbitration with other nations, the latest of these being one with Great Britain. Mr Jones, while at Wellington the other day. had an interview with Sir William Jervois, who- expressed himself as being adverse to the existing military systems and the barbarisms of warfare, and anxious to see some more rational method adopted for the settlement of international differences.

In giving expression to such views, War Ministers and Governors simply echo the enlightened sentiment of civilised communities; in asking for war. votes and in organising plans of offence and defence, they endorse the popular verdict that war is still inevitable, oral: least, 5* vis face, para helium. The Latin adage is evidently not sound, for it is the unbearable strain of war preparation that at the present moment constitutes the principal menace to the peace of Europe ; but it is a matter of plain necessity that the defences of Great Britain and her colonies must be maintained in sufficient strength and efficiency to repel any aggressive combination that might be formed against them. As the engines of destruction become more terrible, and arms of precision like the Maxim gun convert a battle into a slaughter, it will be found thai " the common sense of most "will rise in revolt against a continuance of war. It may be that the coming European conflict is hang ing fire because of men's dread of the terrible slaughter which an outbreak of hostilities will involve ; but it is to be feared that the voice of humanity will be lost amid the ragings of the international jealousy and greed, Even were arbitration universally accepted as the means of settling disputes between nations, there will still remain a necessity for maintaining vast armaments and' munitions &i war, as well as standing armies. There must be physical power available to enforce th.c decisions of international trfrWls; a»d P?ppJe vviU for ma"y sen"

erations not deem it safe to cease from making strong defence works. The enormous expenditure now contemplated for the strengthening of the British Navy may therefore^ be justified as necessary and advisable for national defence, and perhaps even as a means of intimidating aggressive nations, and preventing that outbreak of war which everyone so much dreads.