THE IMMINENCE OF WAR WITH FRANCE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 10869, 19 January 1901, Page 6

THE IMMINENCE OF WAR WITH FRANCE.

Under the aliove disquieting title, on 4irt!» cle appeared in a recent issue of the Melbourne " Age," ■wibic'h. sought to prove from late evenits .tJvat France is making extensive and active preparations for war with 'England. Soma months ago, at is pointed out, considerable excitement was caused in England when it became knqwn that France ■was purchasing and storing enoranous quantities of steam coal, and tSrat h&r dockyards and arsenals were working at feverish haste to complete her naval armaaneats. Public excitement, however, is easily allayed, and events ore soon forgotten, but preparations for war still continue The Fashoda incident, it is asserted, would have led to a declaration of war, .but for the fact that France was quite unprepared, her navy at that time baLng unfit to stand) up to the British, fleet for fifteen minutes. The then approaching Paris Exhibition also acted as a deterrent. Now, 'however, the Exhibition ie out of the way; the French fleet is oa a better footing, and as being further improved every day; ami; one general of the French Army has even had the daring to openly advocate tti the Chamber of Deputies an invasion of England. Furthermore, as another war omen, there was a receot caM* message mating the revelation that a French steamer from (Marseilles, wihrich had gone ashore at Sicily, and which was supposed to be coal laden, was in reality carrying a cargo of big guns, rifles, and ammunition to Ju>outil, the Frenoh colony in the Gulf « Aden, near the mouth of t&e- Red Sea.

It is not from France only that t4* •vn-itsr gathers signs of the coming crisis. In Great Britain he collects many significant circumstances. Why, for example, tws the British Parliament dissolved before its term had expired? It was, 'he says, because the Government saw the stressful times ahead of the nation, and recognised that duaunjg the next few years Ministers would require a substantial -working majority* which the prestige attached to a successful war would now enable them to secure. Then again, some of the age-3' Ministers had given place to young men, who could stand arduous labour, and tbe Cabinet was so constituted as not to bs likely to be torn by internal dissension. WitMn forty-eight hoars of the publication of the result of tin elections, Mr Chamberlain was despatched to inspect and report on the condition of the fortresses of <M>raltar and Malta, and to confer with England's ally in Ithe Mediterranean —Italy. Gibraltar, aa was well known, had been placed in the hands of Sir George White, the hero of Ladysmith, admittedly one ol the moat stubborn defender* ia tt»

Fwpi I *"- or nvas *k* B - F'" Lord Pobcrts downwards, almost ail the Generals JiS<l te en recalled from South Africa, and had to England. All who remained w «r» on L«>rd Kitchener's staff, and were mostly with that General in Egypt. Also, fflbrU were being made to secure the return o? ths regular troops, and to replace them with colonial volunteers. Then, in regard to th© colonies, Lord Wolseley was going to fuiiwla "to aeo some old friends," and (leneral Poie-Carew was to go to Australia to take charge of the Federal troops. In ell these things the writer sees a significant preparation for a coming struggle. An order ffioivtd by the Natal collieries from the British Admiralty, for 200,000 tons of coal per month, to be delivered at a port in India, htva but one meaning to him. Even the decision that the Duke of York is to visit tho colonies in an ocean liner, instead of a warship, is dragged in to swell the mass of evidence, for, he argues, every available vewel of war is wanted for the looming emergency. While there may be a good deal in some of the contentions advanced, it is obvious that* many of the <£eductions are rather far-fetched. The point about the Duke of York travelling in the Orient seems lo us particularly almud. Moreover, even this prophet of cvii admits tbat tire British Government are folly alive to the threatening danger, and are taking every precaution to meet it. "The English Government," he lays, "are pushing on their warlike preparations just as assiduously, and as secretly, "v France. That the arsenals are fully "occupied may be illustrated by one fact. "No less than four miles of cottages have "recently been constructed near Woolwich, "to accommodate the extra workmen em"ployed, the total number of hands being "now upwards of 40,000." While the political atmosphere of Europe is far from W?ing serenely cnlrn, it seems to us that the very facts quoted.by our Melbourne contemporary are the best assurance possible that the threatening war cloud is not likely to bunat over the Empire in the immediate future. It is an old adage, that the best means of maintaining peace is to be prepared {or war.