The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Thursday, October 20, 1887. EUROPEAN AFFAIRS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 56, 20 October 1887, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Mo rning.

Thursday, October 20, 1887. EUROPEAN AFFAIRS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

After months of rumours as to impending strife amongst the great European powers, it is pleasant to notice any signs, however apparently small of a decrease in the bellicose attitude which has so long been the rule. If any faith can be put in the alliance which has been formed between Germany, Austria, and Italy it is certain that this combination of interests must prove a very efficient safeguard against the peace being disturbed. At first sight the alliance seems an unnatural one, and one opposed to thi teachings of history. What can Itah for instance, have in common with the power which until 1866 held possession of the fair plain of Lombardy, and whose white-coated soldiers were an ever-present insult to the proud Venetians ? Again it may be asked, how can Austria, in whose memory the names of Sadowa and the Six Weeks' Campaign have still an unpleasant sound, have in common with her neighbours, who then wrought such havoc in the Imperial Dominions ? Both questions, seemingly difficult, are in reality, easily to be answered. Present interests are stronger than past injuries, and the most dire of antagonists in the past frequently become the best ot friends. There is no unatural union implied by this alliance ; far from such being the case, there is that strongest of all bonds, the bond of united protection against common enemies, which has ever in the history of Europe proved the best incentive to heal old wounds and soothe over old animosities in the presence of an immediate and threatening peril. The object of the alliance is not disguised, nor could it be, for to any one who studies contemporary European affairs it is clear and simple enough. The three signing powers are threatened with a terribly strong combination at an early date, the evidence of whose existence has long been apparent, bui of late more than usually so. It is Russia and France whom the recently allied powers have united their strength against, and the task of showing whaf interest a Franco-Russian alliance has for the Germans, Austrians and Italian? is easy enough to fulfil. First and foremost as to Germany. Russia has not forgotten how Bismarck foiled her ambition at the Berlin Conference, nor does she forget that when the German Prince Battenburg, driven out of Bulgaria by Russian intrigue and Russian treachery, he found much open sympathy, if not from the Emperor William himself, at least from the heir apparent to the German Crown, whose hostility to anything Russian has for some years been more pronounced than discreet. On the other hand Germany resents the open insults to her sons who have settled in the Baltic provinces of the Czar. Along the lowlying shores of the Baltic from Konigsberg to Reja, German traders and merchants carry on the great flax industry which is the main business of that district, and the Anti-German cry fostered by the Cwt's protege, the late Herr Katkoff, has been heard with anger at Berlin. Throughout the whole of Russia the more intelligent and well-educated German has monopolised the bulk of the manufacturing industries, and the jealousy and heartburnings which his success has caused have tended to irritation and international ill-feeling. To prevent a Franco-Russian alliance Bismarck has striven for years, but if not actually in operation, the alliance is virtually so. The most ignorant of observers has only to look at the map of Europe to understand the position Germany is in, hemmed in close east and west by united antagonists. As to Austria, she also fears Russia, if not France. By the Berlin Treaty she acquired an immense increase of territory by what was nominally an occupation but virtually an annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Any trouble which may arise through Russian interference in the Danubian States would naturally affect Austria, to which fact may be also added a dread of Russian intrigues in Austria’s share of Poland, a fear not unfounded if the suspicions of the Vienna Cabinet are confirmed. Besides which the Hungarian elemen t in the Imperial Parliament is so strongly anti-Russian that Austria’s policy must perforce be always in touch with the opinions of the majority of her subjects. As to Italy, she has a double object in view. Napoleon would have made the Mediterranean a French lake, to quote his own somewhat epigramatic expression. France's price for her assistance to Russia is, putting aside aid against Germany, a slice of Syria, undisturbed control over the North Coast of Africa, and possibly an extension of the Riviera district. Italy on the contrary would like to see her old possessions of the Savoie and the Riviera once again in her hands, and so mutual jealousies and mutual enmities bring Italy and France more strongly antagonistic than ever. The formation of the new alliance forms an epoch in European history, and should it pre-

vent any aggression on the part of the other two powers, it may effectually preserve the peace of Europe intact for some time to come.