CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume C, Issue 11724, 31 October 1898, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

M. DE ROUGEMONT jlnd the BRITISH PRESS.

If we may judge from!.

the comments of the leading: English newspapers on M.j de Rougemont’s address to! the British Association, the; great majority, of them were! disposed, even after the)

“ Daily Chronicle ” had thrown some doubtsf upon his story, to take the , imaginative Frenchman seriously. Even the' venerable' London “Times” thought it necessary to] express its mild disapproval of its Radical! contemporary’s scepticism. “M. de Rouge-i xnont,” it said, “must not take it amiss; that his statements have been received with a certain amount of hesitation.” Such, in] old times, it reminded its readers, was the; fate of Bruoe, and in our own day of Du,' Chaillu. Conditionally, it claimed for itself “ the privilege of endeavouring to be-I lieve him,” and finally, referring to the; natives “discovered” by M. de.RougemontJ expressed a hope “ that either the locall authorities or the Colonial Office will dowhat is in their power to prevent these' Simple and kindly people from being de-j moralised by the temptations which thej pioneers of civilisation are too apt to bring in their train.” The “Dublin Daily Ex-| press” seems to have thought that M. do] Bougemont made the -mistake of being too! truthful. “Until Sir George Newnes tools him np,” it said “he .was almost penniless.| His story of adventure was so extraordinary! that nobody would believe it. Had he been! less truthful and suppressed about nine-] tenths of its remarkable features he doubt-j less would have found many who would credit it.” Wo should imagine that by this' time no one is inclined to find fault with Sir 1 ] George Newnes’s protege for being too; veracious. The “ Standard ” adopted a more! cautious attitude than most of its contempo-i raries, but it declared that M. de Rouge-! mont hftd satisfied several recognised authod-l ties “as to the general Correctness of geographical statements.” The “Mauches-; ter Guardian.” appears to hav%more than half; suspected the authenticity of the stories re-| counted by the British Association’s guest.l “ Whether he be a much-misunderstood con-i tribntor to human knowledge or an incor-j rigible wag,” it observed, “he has sureiyj earned the goodwill of the civilised World.! To people who love tough yams, who like tot, believe in the -existence of sea-serpente and gigantic gooseberries,, and who have faith ini the authenticity of the tales about cdossal! cuttlefish, his stories have all the attraction! of bold romance, with the added charm ofl being told as true. ” This was, perhaps, the! best spirit in which to view M. de Rouge--mont; it was, at a-nyrate, the one that en-i tailed the least humiliation when, his true! character'was revealed. . !

It was only natural that 1 the people of London should accord a magnificent and en-j thusiastic welcome to tbs' returning hero of lho !

LONDON AND THE' SIRDAR.

Soudan. It' is in keeping, too, with' the best traditions of the. munipi-i pality that Lord Kitchener should re«i ceive the freedom of the city, and in thiscon-i neetdon the wording of the resolution car-' ried by-fche Court of Common Council is of special interest. The motion, moved by Mri Baddelpy, was as follows: —“ That the Pree-i dom of this City, together with a sword of! honour, be presented to the Sirdar, Major-i General Sir Herbert Kitchener, K.C.8., in' recognition of his conspicuous and gallant 1 services in the Soudan, especially in connec-1 tion with the capture of Omdurman and the occupation of Khartoum, supported by the' bravo officers, non-commissioned officers, andJ men of all ranks, constituting the Angled Egyptian Army, under his command, ser-| vices which add yet another page to the' glorious reputation of- her Majesty’s forces.”'; Mr Baddeley said that it liad beea ! one of the highest privileges ■ of; the representatives of the City of London to’ recognise and .welcome those who had fought' the country’s battles. They did so_ in early, times in the campaigns of Cressy, Poictiers,] Agincourt, Families and Blenheim. With regard' to great naval engagements they so honoured Admirals Howe, Rodney,-Jervis,; Nelson and Collingwocd. Later on canto Wellington. All these the City had hon-i cured, and it might not be oat of place if Ito recalled a coincidence which seemed strange,! namely, that a hundred years ago, almost to' a day, they conferred the freedom upon a ! man who was Nelson’s flag-captain (Captain: Edward Berry), and who had served so well! at the Battle of the Nile, the very river on' which was fought the victory they were now: celebrating- Among the recipients of the: honour in more recent times were Sir Wil-| Ham Fenwick. Williams of Kars, Admiral! Lord Lyons, Sir James Outran*, Sir Colin] Campbell, Lord Napier of Magdala, Lordl Wolseley of Cairo, Lord Alcester and Lord 1 Roberts of -Kandahar- The list is a dis-; tinguished one, and it will gain lustre from; the addition of the-Sirdar’s name. As Mr Baddeley said, he succeeded in taking a large army a thousand miles from its base, witn all the munitions of war, at a minimum, of suffering and discomfort, and with a maximum of effect. He delivered a blow that annihilated the cruel tyranny that has so long prevailed in the Soudan, by which agriculture and trade have been paralysed, and the once prosperous and populous city of Khartoum' ruined. ;

Jl REMINISCENCE.

The “ Daily News,” on the occasion of Sir George Grey’s death, reprinted an in-:

terview with the deceased! statesman that was published far and wide 1 about three years ago. Sir George was then asked about his life, now that old age hadi come upon him. He replied: “ Now lam just waiting, waiting quietly, ready to go' when my time comes, and ready to buckle to any work which I can still do for the causa I have worked for these sixty years, and meanwhile just doing what lies next to hand from day to day as well as I can see it.” Looking back over his long career, the thing; which impressed him most was how much he had been helped by people. “ Every- 1 body has been so kind to me,” he said, “ and ; helped roe on. I remember the telegram with my first appointment, to the Governor-; ship of South Australia, coming from Lord John Russell one morning, being brought to me in bed. I had no idea in the world of such a thing happening to me, and so it has been all along. My second appointment—when I was sent off to Now Zealand at a moment’s notice on a ship specially commissioned to call from India, the Maori troubles being pressing, my. instructions

1

found me sitting\ under a hedgerow, not dreaming of such a, thing. Yes, the reason •why 1 have got through so much work, is the Way that everybody all along has always .helped me.” One of the ruling.ideas of his 'life was the importance of Britain' securing outposts on the frontier of civilisation. “ You can draw a line,” he used to say, ''through Africa, south of India, and so round the world, which marks the frontier of civilisation, the edge of a great mass of Ijarbarism and ignorance. There you must plant your outposts.- And by outposts I mean, not military garrisons, but libraries, schools, museums, and appliances for civilising people.” His second great idea was to- keep the Old World put of the New. The future of the world rests, he thought, with the new countries. “In the Old World we have conscriptions, and standing armies, .and all sorts of evils which in the future will be done away with. When the strong, young New World, kept clear of all this,-unitea itself and joins hards with Britain, in the future, it will he little mischief that any Power on the Continent can do, even if it does keep its relics of barbarism.” Animated by such a faith, Sir George looked forward with confidence to the future. “We live in a wonderfully interesting time,” he observed to his interviewer. “We shall soon see a very noble world. Young men will, but not I. I have seen much of the changes, and have helped here and there, and now I must not mind going when my time comes. No, I think I shall not mind. A little baby in his mother's womb does not know what a beautiful world is within a few inches of him, only he cannot see it. Perhaps it is the same with us old men.” And there is certainly a beautiful future waiting somewhere for such workers as Sir George Grey. - .