The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAYApril 26, 1898.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXII, Issue 91, 26 April 1898, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAYApriI 26, 1898.

Tll_ outburst of enthusiasm at the Adelaide theatre when the declaration of war between America and Spain was announced, and the singing of American patriotic airs, indicated and voiced the feeling of all the English-speak-ing race. Whatever sympathy Spain may receive from Continental nations, every man and woman claiming kindred with Britain is on the side of the "tr una- A tlan tic cousin" who is fighting for the' freedom of an oppressed people and for the restoration of industry and commerce in one of the most important tropical islands of the world. Sentiment — British sentiment, especially — has always a groundwork of common-sense and keen business reason. We fight savages in Africa or bombard a South Pacific Island village because some Briton, more or leas obscure, has bad his righta interfered with— rights of peaceful residence and uninterrupted trading. If those rights were not proteoted, the whole nation would feel that the security of commerce was being menaced, and hence the sentiment which impells us to redress the wrongs of the moat unimportant and remote individuals has as its origin the " shop-keeping instinct " which haa made Britain what it is. In an article on the inter-relations with Britain of America and •'-pain, the Wellington " Post " dwells on the circumstance that modern war and its causes are invariably connected in a greater or less degree with the needs and demands of commerce. Two peoples whioh never trade together may never fight each other ; but they bave nothing in common, and in the event of the one or the other being involved in a quarrel with a neighbour with which the neutral countries hive dealings, the sympathies of the latter are sure to be on the side of the neighbour. In the case of America and Spain, a glance at the commercial statistics of the two coantries will explain how it is that the absorbed interest of the British world is concentrated at present on the fortunes of Amorica in tbe war, and why, apart from the sense of blood relationship with

— — — . . Americans, Britons take the side of the atronger in the struggle. In 1896-7 tho relative value of the imports and exports of the two countries was as follows :— Imports. Exports. £. £. United States 160,764,820 181,980,665 Spain 29,366,906 34,890,400 It will be seen that not onlf Britain but Iho whole world has an interest in these vast sums and the products and mannfuotures they represent ; yet the proportion contributed by Spain is absolutely insignificant. More so is this the ease when it is j coneidered thnt the Spanish figures represent a trade which ia so limited that when the exports and imports between Spain and her few colonies are deducted from the total very little indeed is left as representing tho commerce of the country with tha rest of the universe. It is no wonder then if, from a business standpoint alone, the sympalhieß of thegreatett trading nation of all, tbe British, are with tbe people with whom thoy have suoh cbse relations. Therj is of course tho sentimental and traditional association ol brotherhood ; which must bo reckoned as a factor of the union between America and Britain. But underlying all is the bond of commerce, which has cemented more nations together than even the blood of a mother in common. * I