The Hastings Standard Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 13, 1897. THE MARKET INFLUENCE.

Hastings Standard, Issue 219, 13 January 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 13, 1897. THE MARKET INFLUENCE.

For the cause that lacks assistance, l or the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, • And the (good that we can do.

Fok two years or more the Armenian question has been kept well before the public, if not by the people of England, then by the inhuman atrocities of the blood-thirsty Turks. Massacre has succeeded massacre and yet the big European nations stand by powerless to interfere. This impotenty has been marvellous and unaccountable, except on the assumption that to coerce Turkey is to bring about a great European war. The inaction of England involves a breach of treaty obligations, and though elaborate excuses are given for Hon interference, the real reason why Turk<y is not " bustled" is perhaps I ei-.iu fiie Stock Exchanges and Jloiir>e Mould si ler. The Investors Keview lie - , ( tes a )• tge or two to the consideration of tbus question, and dealing w.'ti Lord Kosebery's speech at Edinburgh on the !fth October last says; "This \ery able politician and hitherto leu ling * jingo ' gave a most exact alii! admirable expression to what ma\ be described as the Stock Exchange feeling on this Armenian question." We may indicate that feeling ii a sentence. \\ar with Turkey, o • a threat of war, is not to Im* thought of for one moment. Tin: Stock Exchange does not cart' one sixjM-nce for alleged treaty obligations, and accepts with delight Lord RuSe!m ry'.- argument to the effect that the Constantinople Convention is a dead letter, and never was anything else. It may !»• true that Lord* Heaconslield and Sahnburv nunc back from Berlin and tiMtuidtKi tii« praises of their deeds in playing •• cat" there to Prince itismarck, to the end that liuwia might bv deprived of her couquest*, Mid tb« excellent, saligbttQed, *nd

altogether most admirable Sultan of their orientalised imaginations set free to carry out those adminstrative reforms he was, Lord Beaconsfield said, burning to institute ; and that they bragged of our having taken Cyprus as a watch tower from which to, as it were, superintend the development of these reforms, as a guarantee to the Armenians of their liberty. All this may be as the agitators allege ; and what of it ? Lord Beaconsfield is not only dead but canonised; and we now worship at his shrine from afar, unplagued by his "policy." We will tolerate no interference from his ghost in our affairs, and we don't want a war to keep troth with Armenians or anybody else. A war of that sort would "spoil markets" for us and perhaps drive more than half of us to cheat our creditors. Just think of it ! How on earth are we to fight anyone barring savages in the present state of stock markets with all prices at giddy heights. . . . The thing is not to be allowed. Where, too, would the Rothschilds be, with Brazil and Spain and perhaps Turkey and Egypt, on their hands, lot alone far reaching financial interests in every part of the globe—North and South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and—who knows '?— British Columbia ? Are there not loans to float innumerable, companies to organise and finance, markets to guide and support'? And can any of these things be comfortably done if we run the risk of war with any big power '? Why consols might go to 7 ■'> on the mere fright of such a contingency. Was ever jingoism so beautifully brought to book. We know now, no matter who breaks the peace of Europe, or risks breaking it, England assuredly will not. Stock Exchange prices, therefore are not likely to be disturbed this winter by the Eastern question." The reasons given above may not be the ones actually influencing British statesmen, still there is no doubt that the Stock Exchange element is in the background and exercising its power unseen. To the gamblers on the Exchange a war would be disastrous, the mere rumor of a war between England and some other European power would cripple many of them, millionaires though some of them may be. Is it to be wondered then if they endeavor to protect themselves by warding off the impending disaster. A great deal of human suffering must be endured in order that these financial sharks may not be disturbed in thenfeeding.