THE UNITED STATES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12538, 27 June 1901, Page 3

THE UNITED STATES.

It is.a. somewhat singular fact .(writes "Ex-Attache" in the "New Orleans TimesDemocrat") that the two European Statesman whose names are the most ly identified with the agitation mow in progress in the Old World against the United States have each of them Transatlantic affiliations. Admiral Canevaro, who, during toe course of some bitter anti-American utterances at Toulon the other day, not merely advocated economic • warfare by united Europe upon this country, but even hinted that the possibility of an armed coalition — a hint which causes the sober and conservative old "Spectator" to advise Uncle Sam to increase the size of his fleetr—was, indeed, born on this side of the ocean. Of Genoes& ancestry, he is a native of Peru, a country which his elder brother represented as envoy, both In Franca and in England, throughout a quarter of a century until his death in a railroad accident on the Spanish frontier a few months ago. The Admiral emigrated from Peru as a lad, secured Italian naturalization, entered the Italian navy, on wirioh he ;rose to the rank of Admiral, and' has held in turn the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs and likewise of j Premier of Italy. Count Golouchowski, the j Polish-born Minister of Foreign Affairs and ■ Chancellor of tlhe Austro-Hungarian Empire, j is married to a lady who has a very strong j strain of American blood in her veins, her j grandmother being a Miss Frazer, jof Philadelphia, who was governess to the family of ex-King Joseph Bonaparte at Borden - town, N.J., while heT father, Prince Joaohkn Murat, was born and to a great extent educated in this country. It cannot, however, be said that the Murats ever manifested any particular.degree of gratitude towards the United States for the refuge and for the hospitality which they enjoyed here. On the contrary, they have always been 'conspicuous by their . UNDISGUISED ANIMOSITY, towards everything' American, and; when some ten or twelve years ago Prince Joachim Murafc, the father of Countess Golriu- ; ohowski, was on the point of wedding Miss Gwendoline Caldwell, of. Washington, the; trousseau having been bought, the day for ■ the ceremony fixed, hia children, as well as: his brothers and sisters, inteaferedVandthrea-; bened to sever all relations with him if he '■ became the husband of either Miss Caldwell or of any other American heiress. It is perfectly true that the actual jilting was done by. Miss Caldwell herself. But she only dismissed the prince when, -in obedience to the: behests of his children, he -put forward such preposterous demands of a financial character that he: knew his fiancee could neither concede'; nor even consider them. No one wasf more active than Count Golouchowski in j bringing about the rapture of his father-! in-law's engagement to Miss Caldwell. It. was he who carded on all the negotia- | tions with the prince, and, by way of in- j during the somewhat impecunious and j spendthrift Joachim Murat' to yield in j the matter, he undertook to settle upon ; him an annuity of 15,000d01, this being 5000dol more than the allowance, which . Miss Caldwell,~by the terms of the mar- i riage contract, had assigned to the prince. I The count made it perfectly clear that \ he entertained no personal objection to Miss Caldwell, and that he was only; prejudiced against her> on the score of , her nationality, for, in settling the al- . lowance ■ above mentioned upon his father-in-law, he stipulated that its con.-,, tinuance should he conditional upon his : steering' clear .' of Transatlantic belles, j offering no objection to. his marriage,; some years later, to the English widow j of the immensely wealthy Parisian banker, Hainguerlofc. Count Golouchowski is quite rich, possessing large estates in Gallicia. Still, at the same time, 15,000d0l a year is a large sum, especially according to 1 European ideas, for a man to pay in order j to satisfy a prejudice on his own part, J and on that of his wife, against a foreign ■ nation, and I cannot help thinking that each time that the count was obliged to put his hand into his pocket to pay his father-in-law's allowance his grudge against the United States must have been increased thereby. j A DEEP-ROOTED PREJUDICE. j ' If I" call attention to these matters it : is because the personal prejudices and sentiments of statesmen and rulers exer- ; cise a far greater weight in political affairs ' and in international relatione than is generally believed. ' The pronounoed sympathy of the late Queen'Victoria and of her successor, King Edward, for everything American has influenced the relations between Great Britain and this country for the last half century to an extent which it is almost impossible to estimate. The per- : sonal ill-will of the late Count Mouravieff toward Germans, fur reasons of a purely private character, played no inconsiderable part in antagonising Germany and Russia while he was Foreign Minister to the Czar, ; and the degree- to which the late Prince ' Bismarck permitted his individual animosities and likings to sway the domestic and foreign policy of. the German Empire while he was Chancellor, is known to every stu- ' dent of the history and of the events of the reign of the grandfather of the present Kaiser. That Count Golouchowski should maintain a deep-iooted prejudice against this country, due mainly to cbetimstanees of an essentially private character, is worthy of being placed on recard, seeing that it has bad to take a leading part in the endeavour to revive the holy abiarice of Europe asrainst the United States,while if I have drawn attention to the Peruvian birth of Admiral Canevaro, it is because the people of South America have all along been distinguished for their antipathy _towaDdi everything pertaining to the United States, and that the Admiral ha 3 merely retained the sentiments which prevail in the land of his birth with regard to Uncle ( Sam. • j How bitter and pronounced are these anti-American feelings on the part i\t ■ Count Golouchowski and Admiral Caiictfaro, can best be aDD«£iated by the fact

that they should have allowed themselves to be influenced thereby to publicly identify themselves will*, a movement which is ill-timed, injudicious, and doomed to ignominious failure. It is ill-timed for the reason that at the very moment when endeavours are being made to induce the United States to consent to the.neutralisation of the inter-oceanic canal, a waterway in which all the maritime nations of the Old World are profoundly interested, it is Impossible to intimate to this country that i ere long it will bs called upon to face, not merely an economic; alliance, but, likewise an armed coalition against it on the part; of all • Europe, It is injudicious .because a statesman destroys his own; reputation for political sagacity and gravely impairs the prestige of his oountry by committing the latter to a course that is assured of certain and ignominious failure. .And that; the attempt to organise on economic and political coalition of all Europe against this country is doomed to defeat, is apparent to every thoughtful man whose vision and common-sense are not obscured by unreasoning animosity. For it may be safely assumed that as long as King Edward remains on the throne of Great Britain, the latter will never take part in any movement against this country, economic or otherwise,. but will maintain the same attitude that it observed at ihe time of the war of 1898, when it frustrated, by its expression of sympathy and of friendship for the United States, Count Golouchowski's attempt to bring 'about a European intervention on behalf of Spain. Even if it were proposed to restrict the now projiicted coalition to the countries of Continental Europe, there would be no ; ground for apprehension in the United States. For one or another of the Great Powers might be relied upon to . . > ■ SECRETLY COME TO TERMS with Uncle Sam behind the backs of its colleagues, with the object of securing special advantages of an economic as well as political character. The experiences of the past have shown this, and one need only refer to the Russian agreement with China about Manchuria,' and to the English acquisition of Cyprus in 1878, as instances in point. Moreover, 4t is not .the trade and industry of the United States, but the people of Continental Europe, who would be the principal sufferers by. any Continental embargo- on American goods and produce. England benefited, rather than suffered, from an economic point of view, by the Continental embargo placed npon British trade'at the beginning of the last century by Emperor Napoleon, while it was the Bufferings resulting therefrom throughout Continental Europe that brought about the universal rising against j the great Oorsican, which resulted'in; ; hi's j overthrow. Nowadays, nearly 100 years later, when the countries of the Old World We become a hundred, nay a thousand, per c«nt more dependent upon American produce than Continental Europe was dependent" upon English goods at the time of the Napoleonic embargo, the sufferings of i>iiQ masses resulting from an exclusion of all imports from the United- States would be immeasurably greater, so intense, indeed, that it may be questioned whether the common, people would not be driven, by the increase in the price of food and of the necessaries of life, to rebellion against their respective Governments. A European embargo upon American trade, indeed, is well-nigh impracticable, since, it would inevitably produce such a rise in the" price of indispensable com- I mo'dities,' as to result in a popular revo- j lution that no monarch or ajdrninistra- | tion would care to face. That is why the American people can"afford to remain indifferent to the ' threats and intrigues of Count Golouchowski and of Admiral Canevaro, as well as to -the J warnings of the London " Spectator, when it 'declares that "when the alliance against America, of which Admiral Canovaro talks, becomes an accomplished fact, , it would be full grown and full armed." The measure of the fitatesoraft of the principal author of this anti-American agitation, namely Count' Golouchowski, is most strikingly, shown in the extraordinary communication that he has just seen fit to publish- in the . official press of Vienna as emanating from the Govern- j ment. It is nothing more nor less than j an authoritative denial of the stories which have recently appeared in certain French and Russian newspapers, according to.whicn the-Austro-Hunfgarian Empire is. in a state of " decomposition." The idea of the .Gov-ernment-of a great power such a s AustroHungary condescending to. enter the lists aoainst irresponsible foreign newspapers for the purpose of denying, through the " OFFICIAL JOURNAL," and through the ministerial Press, that j the dual Empire is in a moribund condi- j tion, is almost inconceivable, and indicates the most glaring absence of the proper \ sense of what 'is due to the dignity and grandeur of this, -the most ancient Empire of the Old World. No one has given anv undue attention to these silly tales which have been circulated on the subject of a partition of the dual Empire on. the death of Francis Joseph, and whatever imporcance they will henceforth enjoy will be entirely attributable to the fact that Count Golouchowski should have considered them worthy of an official and most undignified denial. It did not need his 'ccrmmunique" to make clear to any thoughtful man that the German Empire has no wiah to absorb the 10,000,000 Germans now subject to Austrian rule, a nd who are for the most part fervent. Roman Catholics, gino l it would entail the unwelcome addition of some 8,000,000 of Slave and of Czechs, who would constitute a source of discord and of weakness. Moreover, the people of Tyrol, of Styria and of th* Central Austrian provinces, who have nothing to common with Northern Germany but the language, are well aware' that thwy would have little to gain, but much to lose, by transferring their allegiance to the Hobenzollerns, while the o,GuQ,OOO Poles in Gallicia, who are happy and contented m>*«* the Austrian Crown, would never

consent without a sanguinary struggle to annexation to Russia. Moreover, there is o strong, powerful and prosperous knngdom of Hungary to be considered, which is not only profoundly interested in the maintenance of the Ararfxc-BJangarian Empire a» now constituted,' but determined to maintain it intact against all foes under the tame-honoured sway of the Haps* burg dynasty. All this is patent and well known]! afld we did not require to have it told us by Count Golouchowski.