The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, JULY 6, 1896.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 157, 6 July 1896, Page 2

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

MONDAY, JULY 6, 1896.

its the cause that laolcs assistants, ffir th» wrong that naedi resistance, Fer 1&9 fakiro in tho tUstanou. And the csod that yjt can do.

There can ba libblo doubb thab Great Britain aa a nation is very ofton disliked and very generally distrusted by her neighbours, and all manner of reasons hovo been suggested for this disagreeable fact It is our overbearing manner, some say, to which we must ascribe our unpopularity; others contend thab our grasping character is the cauaa of our boing looked on rather coldly by the resb of the world. Probably we are both overbearing and grasping, bub nob in a degree to account for tho hostile frame of mind entertained towards us. The real reason, we believe, thab we are disliked and distrusted as a nation, is thab we are essentially a nation to be feared,

Ib has become a rather common thing now among Englishmen to depreciate the power of Great Britain, and to exaggerate and misconstrue the signs of apparent weakness or decadence in the Empire ; and the re*§u"lfc 13 fc'h'oib the cry has been re-echoed among thoso multitudes who ore led captive by any cry. In the colonies here we regret to say that it is tar from uncommon to hear ignorant and unpatriotic individuals asserting with a strange satisfaction thab ib would take very little " to knock the old country into a cocked hat." Our absolute want of knowledge of foreign diplomatic circles leads us to interpret the braggadocio of some French or German newspapers as the expre»sion of the people as a whole, and we ruah to the conclusion thnb because a foreign journalist pours unmitigated contempt on Greab Britain, and profeeaes the most complete disregard for her friendship or assistance, his Government and his countryman generally are of precisely the opiniou he has ex.preased. We could nob commit a greater mistake than to take our conception of what foreigners think of England from the utterances either of foreign writers or speakers. They seldom speak their real fetslingft on such a question. They are unwilling to admit even to themselves the prominent figure which Britannia occupies in their minds, much less to proclaim ife on the housetop?. So they condemn, detract from, and ridicule ourcountry. Their policy is one of " bluff." At heart they are far more impressed with the might of Greab Britain than Britons themselves are. We have beon nourished amid such large ideas of conquest and empire thab, the tact of the influence we exercise over the destinies of this planet) seldom strikes us. But how different must thab power and influence appear to the Frenchman, whose oversea empire is bo weak and small as compared with oure, or to the German, whose territorial ideas have only recently had an opportunity for expansion. It is nob merely the enormous tracts of land in every quarter of the world over which our flag flies; bub it ia the very striking fact bhab almost wherever we have gone we have laid the foundations of greab English communities thab in time will be well able to protect)

themselves. . How wretched in comparison with the splendid colonising successes of England are the attempts of France and Germany. And again in India—how our work there roust impress the foreigner !

Those sons of England who are conscious of her greatness, but doubt her ability to maintain it, believe that that doubt is very strong in the foreign mind, We rather fancy that if we could read into the foreign mind we should find that fear of England's power, nob doubt of it, was the foreigners' habitual attitude. Beside the great conscription armies of the Continent our forces appear email in our eyee, bub in the eyes of the Frenchman and German the size of bur regular British-born army is moro than compensated for by the overwhelming strength of our navy, the magnificent) strategic positions we hold all over the world, our enormous wealth, the resources of India and the colonies, both in the way of men and money, and the undoubted unconquerable spirit of the race.

As" a recent writer has said, we think we are very slow in adding to our navy, the chief bulwark of our greatness, but to the foreigner our ability to get ready a flying squadron and to direct ib or a body of troops on any given point in the shortest) possible time eeems marvellous. They see in us a übiquitous Power with unlimited resources and a terrible amount of energy. There is no saying whab we will not attempt; there is no gauging our power to conquer difficulties. From the positions wo hold all over the world wo can be in half a dozen places remote from each other at one and the 'same time. In every country under heaven our sons are watching like hawks the trend of events, and when there is need for British inter? (erence the cry is hardly made' before it is answered. "If a corps d'armee in wanted in China, ib can be there in thirty-six days; if in Egypt, it can b« landed within sixteen. It was nob a fortnight after the decision was taken to garrison Suakim from India, thai the regiments, foob, cavalry, artillery, Intelligence Department, engineers, and, we doubb not, all materials for telegraphs, if not for a short railway, were on their road bo the Red Sea. A fortnight's longer notice and tho division could have been mndo an nrmy corps; a month's, and a fully equipped army would have been on board the transports. They are among tho beat troops in tho world, too—English soldiers annealed by what is practically foreign service, and Sikhe who" have fought aucces»fullv with Englishmen, and who regard a summons to tight in Kgypb or Burmah or China as a summons to a rollicking adventure, during which they can gratify their thirst for fighting and save the whole of their regular pay-!'

Ib is somewhab ludicrous for Englishmen to speak lightly of England's strength, and often to think lightly of it too, because her Continental neighbours endeavour to contemn her. We might know that the more jealous the foreigner is the less likely would he be to let his fear ot our power be seen, and knowing this, value bis criticisms ab their true worth,