NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10969, 25 January 1899, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The news tnat the first-class cruiser Orescent has been ordered to the Australian station comes as a surprise (says the Melbourne Argus), and naturally provokes conjecture. Australia has not asked for a vesse which SO greatly increases the fighting power ahd also the heavy annual cost of the Imperial squadron in these waters. She is right welcome ; arid yet the question arises Why is she sent ? People will be apt to connect this reinforcement of the Admiral on England's most distant station with recent news of an increased strain it. the relations between Great Britain and France, Feeling between the two countries is evidently becoming more and more embittered ; and, although it is not necessary for us to assume that there is any real danger of so deplorable a calamity as a war between the leaders of European civilisation, yet the Salisbury policy from first to last has been to be prepared. Supposing that the calamity occurred, we know in what way the French would strike. The blow Would fall on British commerce. The endeavour would be to render the import and the export trade of the Empire uncertain, and so to send up prices and to stop orders. Hungry mouths and idle workshops would, it is hoped, paralyse Great Britain. The British Admiralty has worked the situation out to its utmost detail. At the Jubilee demonstration it was said that every one of the assembled vessels had its war post, either to cover the British coast or to protect the trade routes, and it may be that the Crescent is one of a number of cruisers which -ire quietly proceeding to their appointed ph-?;s. Given the misfortune in question—the misfortune which we hope never to have to re cord—and probably our Australian trade would abandon the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean, and would use the deep sea route via the Cape. It is a long stretch from Australia to South Africa, and in an emergency the guard would certainly nec 1 to be strengthened at both ends.

In an article in the Fortnightly Review nn "American expansion and the inheritawe of the race." Mr. W. L. Clowes suggests that Britain might help America in making a start in the " colonial business," by an exchange of civil servants. Why not, asks Mr, Clowes, arrange the matter between the nations in the same way "It appeals to me, then, that at this juncture Great Britain could render nb greater service r.o the United States, and to the common raw, than by letting it be understood, firstly, that she would feel greatly complimented if the United States would allow 30 or AO young Americans, of good education and character to enter the British Colonial service for a stipulated period ; and. secondly, that she would be glad to place at the disposal of the President of the United States, foi a similar period, an equal or less number of tried British colonial administrators of various ranks to assist American governors in the organisatioin and management of the new possessions. The American's would, for the time, become civil servants of Great Britain; the Britons would, for the time, become civil servants of the United States; but there would be no transfer of allegiance ; and, save as concerned their paymasters, and the authority under which they were temporarily serving, the Americans would be little different, as regards status, from the young engineering students, who, from time to time, have been sent to Glasgow, and other British engineering centres, to study their profession, under the supervision of the United States Naval Attache in London. But the initiative should come from us. We should invite the Americans into our service, and merely let it be known that, if the loan of a few of our men of experience would be useful, it might be instantly had. America is too proud to say the first word. Nor, if she wants any help that we can give her, ought we to wait for a request."

" In connection with the Sirdar's insistence upon the non-proselytising and unsectarian character of the proposed Memorial College at Khartoum, it is interesting to recall," remarks the London Daily News, "an old story told by the Archbishop of Canterbury about General Gordon's views on the eonversion of the Soudan. The Archbishop was then Bishop of E.vetfr, and Gordon, he says, called upon him before setting out on his last expedition, in order to talk over some doubtful points in his mind. One of them tots whethei, in order to convert the Soudan. it would be permissible to allow polygamy to converts. The Bishop was obliged to tell him that they could not eliminate from Christianity the law which permitted to Christens no more than one wife; and Gordon responded sadly that he could eonvert the whole of Africa if only he could permit the men to retain the same numbei of wives. Happily foi its efficiency, a nonproselytising institution will not be hampered in it? work by any need for settling disputed points of religious :onduct of this kind."

The Grashdanin (a St. Petersburg journal) publishes an article in which it asks whether Russia would not be acting wisely in lenouncing the possession of Port Arthur and Ta-lien-wan. This renunciation would have the following effects:-Firstly, to give her a free hand; secondly, to rid her of harbours Where, in the event of a war with Gieat Britain, her ships would be caught like rats in a trap; and thirdly, to spare her the cost of enormous defences. By occupying herself chiefly wiUi affairs in Northern China, especially that part of China which borders on Russia's own possessions, and with the railway to Manchuria; Russia will be a "warning signal to the British even in the South of China." "Russia could then proceed," says the journal, "to develop her terntotv 111 the direction of Afghanistan a; d prcpafc herself for the supreme combat which she must inevitably have, sooner or later, wjth Great Britain, profiting at the same time by the latter having scattered her forces in all directions—an error by which she will Havfe weakened herself in India It is absolutely essential that Russia Atiuld fight this supreme battle on land and not on sea, encountering her adversary simultuncouslv m the north of China arid at the gates of India." The Grashdanin rejects all notion oI to eventual rapprochement with Okat Britain, the inveterate enemy of fa sia, from whom the latter can look far no advantage; and it advocates, oii tie contrary, an alliance with German}, "which France might be induced to join*

a the Chamber of Deputies thb Master for Foreign Affairs las mad e 'i|| statement regarding the Egyptian question?!® Ho said Majot Marchand's expedition |£|§ never intended to annihilate the pretensioai advanced by Sir E. Grey Tile WilliSf^ frofli tfashbda MS not humiliating, but £;| the best liitetest of Friuice. War with EiisJ| land would be a calamity to the world. Tl| metal tone of the debate was Concliiifapf Ih the cmirsc of a speech at BhMhgM§ the Duke of Devonshire said the Govenihteat ■ ,vero never stronger than at prcs6fi{j||: Britain's firm resolve to maintain her rigllj had resulted, lie said, in closer relations wit& • ? Germinr. Italy, and Russia, and had rf cleared the air in regard to France, fijm tin<nlished British soldiers have be® J® pointed Governors of Omdurman, Senhaf|?jj and Fashoda, in the Soudan. The Stani | ard's Berlin correspondent states that thi : Samoan difficulty has been fettled oh tiiff; basis of the maintenance of the Convention | Italy will have nothing to do with ttjjj Czar's Disarmament Conference if the Pops' is invited. Another serious rising has ocerred in the province of Ngan-whei, in ( I Intern China. The rebellion is spread 4-, ini»"s.i rapidlv that- the Viceroys of tlieneigki f: touring provinces have been instructed to ,5' take united action for the. suppression 0} :i; the outbreak. Sir Claude Mac Donald has g demanded compensation for the murder 6f 1 Mr W. S. Fleming, a missionary. (sjj « learning that 36 Senators were opposed ti | the terms of the treaty between America and Spain, Senator Davis, who has charge | of the treaty in the Senate, declared that hi"., ; would rather allow the ratification to tffflfl .jjr over till next session, than abandon p®. |J: manent sovereignty over the Philippines. fc The Filipino insurgents ale releasing theii % prisoners. The Spanish Governoi of Palai 'van, one of the islands of the Philippine g Group, together with a numbe: of ,< officials, ha# been murdered by the natives! -f, The Court of Cassation has examined Ester* A hazy regarding his relations with the lat« Colonel Henry. A company has been formed pin Germany with the object of constructing a direct cable between America and tier; -?■ many. A collision has taken place at Detroit . port'between the battleship Collingwood find : the cruiser Curacoa, the latter being badly j damaged. Notes to the value of £70,000 •' have been stolen from Parr's Bank, London.- , - . The numbers of the notes are known, but : v there is no clue as to the perpetrators of Mi ' I robbery. ' J