The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, MARCH 10, 1890.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 57, 10 March 1890, Page 2

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

MONDAY, MARCH 10, 1890.

I'sr the oausa that laoka assistance, I.r the wrong that needs resistance, Jor tho future in the distance, And the good that —a can do.

A very interesting outline of the circumstances which preceded the decisive action taken by Lord Salisbury lo coerce Portugal was given by Mr Goschen, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a speech delivered on the 22 nd of January. The Righb Honourable gentleman, while regretting that the Government were obliged to proceed to extremities, declared that no other alternative was left to them. He pointed, out that Portugal had slept fo r two hundred years, but had at last been atoused by the important dis. coveries of Livingstone and Stanley, and had since been indulging in a dream of African dominion, extending from the Zambesi River on the one side to the Atlantic Ocean on the

To the legitimate exercise of such an ambition, iingland could not, of course, have had any reasonable objection. But the Portuguese desired to reap the fruits of the labours of others, and they proceeded with very little ceremony. It was Livingstone who opened up the district around Lake Nyassa, and, as Mr Gaschen truly said, "the whole of that region is Studded with the graves of British explorers, English missionaries, and Scotch discoverers, Step by step as you ascend the river and come to that lake now claimed by Portugal, you find monuments of British enterprise and of British determination to carry civilisation into the Black Continent of Africa.''

The Portuguese, however, were resolved to gain possession of the country, and they proceeded to effect their purpose in a very high-handed manner. " Punch," in a clever cartoon, depicts Major Serpa Pinto dancing a pas seal upon the outspread Union Jack. Tins is literally what he did. A British Protectorate had been granted to certain native tribes, and the flag hoisted with becoming ceremony. Due notice of the fact was given to the Portuguese authorities in Africa. They responded by leading a bandof*Zulus against our proteges and slaughtered them.

Our missionaries upon Lake Nyassa were treated in a scaicely less summary manner. Mission stations have been founded by the Scotch Church, the i University Mission, and other bodies, and these were menaced by armed Arab slave-dealers. It was necessary to send arms for the protection of these mission stations, but the Portuguese refused permission for them to pass, on the ground that it would compromise their sovereignty over the Nyassa district. After preventing this succour from being despatched to the interior for many months, the Portuguese Government were only brought to their senses by the British Government employing very resolute language, which would, Mr Goschen assured his hearers, have been followed by not less resolute action if the point had not been yielded.

With regard to the request for mediation Mr Goschen very fairly pointed out that the appeal came rather late. After despatching secret expeditions North and South and forcibly taking possession of a country, their claim to which had always been steadfastly resisted by England, they were hardly in a favourable position for advocating the principle of peaceful mediation. They had appealed to force, and if their appeal was met by force they surely had no reasonable cause of complaint. It is not always safe to count upon the complaisance or stupidity of the noble bruie who is supposed to keep guard over British interests and British honour.

England has been twitted with bullying a small Power in a way that she would pot have dared to do a more formidable nation. Well, perhaps it is not unnatural to lose one's temper more rapidly when faced by the superlative impudence of a whipper-snapper than when dared by a foeman worthy of one's steel. It is not improbable that parleying might have been more prolonged if France or Germany had stood in the place of Portugal on the Zambesi. But we are not aware of any precedent in the past histroyof the United Kingdom that would lead us to suppose that Britain would shrink from any measure necessary to vindicate her honour, from

whatever quarter it was assailed." The course adopted by Portugal left .Great Britain no alternative ; ?\nd there is no reason to suppose that the decision in the long run would have been different if any one of her continental sympathisers had stood in the place of the little Iberian monarchy.