OUR LONDON LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 726, 2 July 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR LONDON LETTER.

ANGLO-COLONIAL SUMMARY,

London, May 18,

THE COLONIAL CONFERENCE.

There is great difference of opinion about the results of the long deliberations just finished, and, pending the publication of the official report, every journal cites it as an illustration of its own views. The ‘ Pall Mall Gazette ’ is, of course, sanguine to the last degree, finding in the proceedings a justification not merely for Federation, but also for Home Rule. It thinks that the temporary Council thus formed will have to develop into a standing committee, and it points to the haggling over the contributions for defence as evidence of the “ cash nexus,” which is a far stronger link than fine sentiments ; but its most pertinent remark is the following“ The New Hebrides discussion to which we have just alluded suggests a third general reflection—the immense importance, name'y, of personal acquaintance on the part of English statesmen with colonial sentiment. Here is Lord Salisbury, for instance, who stands with his party for all that is patriotic and Imperial; and yet so unsympathetic is his grasp of colonial questions that, according to the ‘ Standard,’ his was the speech at the Conference that created the one ‘ unfavorable impression.’ Every English Minister should be bound to qualify for office by personal knowledge of the colonies, just as he should also be bound to serve an apprenticeship in Ireland.” The ‘ Echo ’ says that the only important point that was settled related to Australasian sea defence, and that that settlement was due merely to the acceptance by the English Government of an offer which the colonies made some time ago; but then the ‘ Echo ’ always does sniff at anything which savors of Imperialism. Really the charge amounts to nothing more than this: the Government wanted to maintain a squadron in Australian waters on a war-footing, but as the colonies would not promise the requisite contributions, and there is no imminent danger of war, the Government have acquiesced in having the squadron on a peace-footing, and will receive a proportionately smaller allowance for the colonies. The actual difference in cost to the colonies is L 62.000 a-year; the figures on a war basis being L 184,000. It is a very unsatisfactory compromise, as it only shirks the question for little longer, to raise it again when Australia thinks herself menaced. Thanks to the shunting of the dangerous topic of the New Hebrides, and also that of the regulation of the tariff, and thanks, too, to the suave and conciliatory manners of Sir H. Holland, who is popular with all who meet him, everything went off very well. On some points there was an unexpected unanimity, but if what the London correspondent of the * Liverpool Post ’ says he overheard be true, this may be only a spurious sign of goodfellowship:—“l am afraid some of the rose-leaves have been crumpled for our colonial guests. I was putting on my coat the other night in the cloak-room at a reception when I heard one decorated colonial statesman remark to another: ‘ Did you hear what that fellow said as we came downstairs ? He said “ Every place is smothered with colonials.”’ The other decorated colonial statesman replied: ‘ Oh, I have heard a great deal of that sort of thing since I have been here.’ ” COLONIAL DISCUSSIONS. However, whether many points of administration have been settled or not, one thing is very certain, that a flood of light has been thrown upon the whole matter, and that unofficial discussion of colonial events, tendencies, and wishes, is quite the order of the day. For instance, within the last week Mr Baden-Powell has twice read addresses before important gatherings; on Monday last before the London Chamber of Commerce, on the “Commercial Relations of the British Empire’’—this being one of the topics tabooed at the Conference. Lord Carnarvon’s speech was the most important, the gist oi it being that the British Empire should be formed into a self-sufficing, selfdefensive commercial union; that there should be no need to go outside the Empire for any commodities ; that we must not be too anxious for a logical uniformity; and that, considering the difficulties arising from the favored nation clause and customs duties, we must all cultivate a spirit of give and take. The text of commercial self-defence was taken up by Sir S. Griffith, the Premier of Queensland, and, strange to say, in spite of his support of “Fairtrp.de,” his sentiments were listened to with attention and even with applause by a representative body of bankers and merchants “in the very centre," as he, the president of tho Chamber of Commerce, expressed it, “ of commercial London.” Mr Baden-Powell’s other letter was on the subject of “ Colonial Government Securities,” before the Royal Colonial Institute, and, although a dry study of statistics, is not very interesting. He suggested some important points, and showed how investment of English capital had departed, to a certain extent, from foreign to colonial stocks, even in the last fifteen years the change being represented by an income of two and a-half millions transferred from the class to the other; and that, in addition to this, there was another million of income wbioh represented fresh English capital invested in colonial stocks In the discussion that followed Sir W. Fitzhcrbext pointed out the advantages which accrued from an’increase of population, and how much more easily the burden could be borne- when immigration had added to the productive powers of the new countries; whilst Mr Paul, of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency, was distinctly to the point in suggesting that municipal loans should not be floated in the London market. But these two meetings don’t at all represent all that has been going on. There was an influential gathering the other night in one of the Committee-rooms at the House of Commons, to discuss State-directed colonisation, and you will be glad to bear that the two best speeches were those of Sir F. D. Bell and Sir William Fitzherbert, both of whom had a good deal of practical experience to go upon. The drift of all the colonial remarks was that the central Government was too apathetic, Another unofficial discussion, raised by the “colonial movement,” was the question of routes to Australasia in time of war. The Cape route and the new Canadian-Pacific scheme were the most favored. There seems to b.e no doubt that a line of Pacific steamers from Canada to India, and perhaps to Australia will be subsidised by Government, since neither Suez nor Panama will be reliable. NEW HEBRIDES. There seems every probability of a speedy settlement of the New Hebrides question, as the Conservative Government rather pride themselves on their diplomacy. Lord Salisbury and M. Waddington, the French Ambassador, have been discussing this matter amongst many others, and are said to have arrived at a satisfactory decision ; but rumor does not say who is going to be satisfied, whether it will be the English or Colonial Governments. England has a good many points to settle with her neighbors across the Channel just now—the Suez Canal, Egypt, the limitation of boundaries on the east coast of Africa, the Newfoundland fisheries, snd the New Hebrides. Everybody knows that Egypt is the key to the whole situation; and now that Sir Drummond Wolff is arranging for its speedy evacuation no doubt France must give some quid pro quo in the Pacific. All are agreed that England can be generous and yielding on the East African question, and certainly there need he no fear of Lord Salisbury’s wavering over the Pacific after the rude wakening he got at the so-called secret conference the other day. He told the colonial delegates that they ought to have been content with Lord Rosebery’s compromise, and allowed France to annex the New Hebrides group; but murmurs of dissent from the Australian representatives came ou himlike acold : douche. A complete report of the matter ■ will not see the light, sinoe this particular incident is to be garbled in the “ almost ' verbatim ” report that the Government will issue; but a question by Lord Rosebery in the Rquse of Lords elicited from Lord | Onslow that the ‘ Standard’s ’ account of the proceedings at the Colonial Conference (a copy of which I send you) was substantially correct, although it gives in some cases a most misleading impression of the decision arrived at. Lord Onslow then spoke of. the New Hebrides discussion in the following words “I might especially refer to'the question referred to by the noble earl with

regard to the New Hebrides, as to which there is no report whatever of the very able speeches which were delivered by the representatives of New Zealand in favor of the proposals made by Her Majesty’s Government before the Conference. I believe lam not inaccurate in saying that there was a general disposition expressed on behalf of the delegates present to accept as satisfactory the action of Her Majesty’s Government.”

There was a very good letter in ‘The Times’ of a few days ago from Mr C. Kinloch Cooke on the subject of France and the Pacific. He is in favor of settling all the outstanding grievances now, and by a timely arrangement prevent the occurrence of disputes in the South-eastern Pacific when the opening of the Panama Canal has created a lot of vested interests. He recognises that Tahiti, the centre of French trade in the Pacific, is absolutely necessary for France ; but thinks that Rapa, which is quite nseless to her, might be transferred to English protection, that Raratonga, which is already coming under our sway, should be recognised as ours, and that the line should so be drawn as to include Tnbai and Raioaioni within the English sphere. In return for this France could take Hnaheine, Borabora, and Raiatea, and the remaining islands of the Society Group; and of course, under this arrangement, the guano islands Faning, Malden, and Starbuck would fall to France’s share. This little scheme looks very well on paper, but it pre-supposes good faith on the part of the Great Republic, an element that the NeW Hebrides episode should warn us against being too credulous about. MB SALA. Sir G. A. Sala, who touud his voyage to the colonies of immense benefit to his health, has just been giving a lecture at St. James’s Hall, entitled “What I saw in Australia and New Zealand.” It seems as if none could make a journey there without writing a book or. lecturing on it; certainly, from a pecuniary point of view, this is all right. Mr Froude made, and is still making, a good pile out of ‘Oceana,’ and the interest in colonial topics does not seem to subside. There was a great crowd to hear Mr Sala, and he was very cordially received. Of course, he was bound to refer to the unswerving loyalty to the English Throne, the love of democratic institutions, and freedom from fiunkeyism that he saw ; he spoke cut quite plainly against the emigration of young men who were not handy, and against shipping off the black sheep of England to the colonies. The only new criticisms he had to pass were on athleticism and literary life. As to the former, he thought young Australia bad a tendency to overdo it, but for the latter he was, on the whole, full of praise. The colonial Press he described as honest, patriotic, and cleanly, although Australia had not yet become “a happy huntingground for literary men.” OCEANIC POSTAGE. Mr He.miker Beaten has half won his battle, and “ social letters” are to be sent for 3d, instead of 6d. Instead of being shipped at Brindisi, they are in future to be put on board in England and sent direct. In this way half the reduction will be saved, since the average expense for each letter passing through France and Italy was l|d ; the other IJd will be met by reducing the subsidy to the P. and 0. and Orient lines for the next seven years. I daresay the P. and 0. are glad enough to get a fresh agreement made, for I hear they are far from jubilant over the recent achievement of the Ormuz in catching up the mails. The Orient people expect to get a monopoly in the. cud; but even, they confess' that so phenomenal a voyage was a very expensive advertisement. As far as I can discover, the general feeling is that this 3d tariff is only a temporary measure, and that Mr Heaton’s demand must in the end be acceded to. THE ROYAL TITLE. The colonial delegates at the Conference acquiesced readily enough in the proposed change in the Royal title. Over hero there is a mute antipathy to the particular form of words. It is somewhat cumbrous,, and although it is not quite new, ever since Lord Beaconsfield’s notorious tampering with the matter, people are suspicious. It rather savors of “had form” to he constantly worrying abont it. But no one regrets the recognition of the colonies, and in future Her Majesty will be styled “Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the Colonies and Dependencies thereof, Empress of India.” GENERAL NEWS. The social entertainment of the colonials goes on without any check, and now that the London season is beginning once more they may expect a lot of invitations. Last Saturday Mrs Gladstone gave a garden party, at which a good many wete present, and the week before she did the same. Most of the delegates went down to Cambridge at the invitation of the new Master of Trinity. It is rather a pity that the visit could not. have been postponed for a couple of months, when the town Is at its best, although the colleges are deserted. Still, to judge from Sir W. Fitzhcrbert’s speech in proposing the health of their host, they had a very enjoyable time A good many of the delegates have had enough of it, and are off home. On Wednesday Mr Deakin left to join the Parramatta at Brindisi. Mr Service is not in snch a hurry, and means to do the Old World well before returning to the new. At present be is in France; but Norway, Sweden, and India all come within his programme, and most probably he will not be back in Melbourne till next year. Sir Samuel Griffith feels that his official duties call him home, and has already started by the San. Francisco route.

The will of a Leicestershire gentleman, Mr V. A. Eyre—a man of great wealth, and a speculator in land in New Zealand—has just been proved, his personalty alone amounting to nearly half-a-million. The trials of a new torpedo boat that has just been built here for the Spanish Government excited a good deal of interest among the delegates who are thinking of colonial defence. The boat is 147£ ft in length, and draws 4ft Sin; when moving at her ordinary pace of nearly sixteen knots an hour she can tarn in three times her own length; daring her trials, on the average she went over thirty miles an hoar, and a few days ago attained the extraordinary speed of nearly thirty-three and a-half miles an hour. The final proceedings in the action against the Beli-Goleman Refrigerating Company came off last week. The machinery of the Company was proved to have been somewhat faulty, and had not preserved the New Zealand meat in a satisfactory manner. Still, as the jury found that the charterers (the plaintiffs) had been guilty of contributory negligence in not cleansing the pipes. Lord Coleridge and Justice Smith had no other coarse open than to practically find in favor of the defendants by awarding the plaintiffs the nominal damages of a faming. At the “Drawing room” last week most of the colonial representatives and their wives were presented.. Sir Henry Holland said, In the House of Commons the other night, that a scheme for the administration of New Guinea had been approved by the colonial delegates; but of course the sanction of the colonial Governments is still required. South Australia stands aloof; but the rest of the Australian Governments are to subscribe L 15,000 for ten years, and the English Government just double sum. As soon as there is an official confirmation of the delegates’ proceedings an efficient administration will be set up and the country formally full protection being given to Native in-* terests,