THE INTERNATIONAL UNREST.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11120, 12 January 1899, Page 3

THE INTERNATIONAL UNREST.

Mr Balfour, speaking recently on the international unrest, said : — For we have to admit that the times in which we live are times of international unrest. (Hear, hear.) It is hard, perhaps, fully to explain the causes of that unrest, for I take it there never was a period when, owing to the fact of universal conscription, war was more repulsive to the feelings of the great masses of populations of the Conti- ( nent of Europe than it is at this moment ; but if we examine what the causes of this unrest are we shall find that in the main they arise from the colonial appetite of many nations dealing with great un- . divided and unsettled portions of Africa, or else they arise from the decay and relative impotence of great States, great j nations, whose affairs cannot but be re- , garded with interest, and are, in fact, of ( the deepest importance to the European nations. It is not to the desire, the corrupt ambition, of great States to swallow ( up smaller and weaker interests that we j owe this present state of unrest. On the _ contrary, I think, if you will examine the ( history of Europe, you will see that small , and well-governed States are some of the ] most stable and permanent elements in ] the family of European civilisation. It _ is when you come to States that are not ] well governed — to some, for instance, of the great Eastern communities — that . you will find European nations in rivalry as to who is to have the succession, who j is to obtain advantage from the weakness j and the corruption which are equally in- ( jurious to all of us. And I do not know that any remedy is to be found for this j state of things except the commonsense and cool-headedness of the statesmen who are at the head of the various Chancelleries in Europe. '