FRUITS OF THE WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11685, 21 June 1901, Page 3

FRUITS OF THE WAR.

LORD SALISBURY'S REFLECTIONS OX BOERS AND IRISH. Lord Salisbury was present at a dinner. organised by the Nonconformist Unionist Association, in London, on Miv 13. Replying to the toast of " His Majesty's Minister." be said:—l am very grateful to you for the manner in which von Lave, received this

toast, and beg on my own belli If. as well .is

on behalf of my colleagues, to offer you the j expression of our sincerest gratitude. I j think it is five years since we last Lad the ; pleasure of a meeting of this kind. Then we were earnestly conjoined in the hope J and the desire that our combined efforts : might profit to the Empire that we love so i well: but we little thought what trials were i before that Empire, and what exertions would be necessary eve the time i tine round j that we should meet again. ' COMPENSATIONS FOR REGRETS, j It is in pome respects a sad retrospect when we remember the number of young j lives that have been quenched, the number of splendid hop. that have been cut short, ' and the amount of blood that his been shed. ; it is a grievous retrospect, but' it is a retro- | sped Lorn which no suggestion of wrong! on the part of the Empire is absolutely ah- j sent. (Cheers.) We have many tiling-- to j lament over, but deeply as we regret the i blood that has been shed, and in a lesser— j far lesser—degree the resources that have' been wasted, we cannot but feel that there! are compensating circumstances and con- j sidcrations which will make every lover of i his country look back, it may lie with rain- j gled feelings, but still with feelings of exal- ! tation and gratitude, upon the two years 1 that have just passed. We have been able to show that the old spirit of our countrymen bun;:-, as bright as it did in any period of our history. "(Cheers.) We have been able to boast of the courage of our soldiers, of the skill of our generals, and, if 1 may be allowed to say soalthough it is always assumed that everything connected with political administration must be bad—l think you may look back with pride to the splendid exertions which placed that vast army upon the shores of Africa. ((.'hears.) THE STRENGTH OF ENGLAND. Rut I do not think that is the only ground {for our gratitude. When I was at the Foreign Office— was there a. long time — (cheers) — used to hear not unfrequently suggestions that, our time had passed, that our star was set. that we were living on the benefit of the valour of those who had gone before us. and on successes in which we had no active share, and that if we meant to keep our place in the world new exertions would bo necessary. I need not say that I heard those suggestions with no kind of sympathy, and with something of contempt(cheers)—but it is true that there had spread about in the world tin impression that we should never light again, and that every adversary had only to press hardly and boldly upon us to bo certain that we should ultimately yield. It was a gross miscalculation—(cheers) —but I have no doubt that the converse is true, and indeed that we have shown what powers we can exercise, what qualities we can display, bow truly we can copy the brilliant example of those who have gone before us. 1 have no doubt that the Empire of England is not only illustrated by this example, but that the cause of peace is now more secure than it was before the strength of England was successfully shown. (Cheers.) Make what deductions you will, lament how you will— and I heartily concur in it—the. sacrifices we have been forced to make, it is indeed a great achievement that there is no Power in the world but knows that if it defies tiemight of England it defies one of the most formidable enemies it could possibly encounter. (Cheers.)

THE DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE. I am not sure that it is discreet to say that I think it something of a benefit that we have been forced to look up our armour, and sue whether there arc any joints hi it to be mended. General impressions may be wrong that our force is not sufficiently well organised, that our preparations have nutbeen sufficiently thought out to make our position as secure as we should wish it to lie. It may be right or it may be wrong, but 1 think it is a desirable thing that the doubts and imputations which have been bandied about year after year should at last be brought to studied and open discussion, so that, we should all on good grounds be able to say that we can trust in the machinery by which the. force of England is to be applied in the defence of the Empire. 1 will not carry these considerations any further, as much mote qualified and competent persons are discussing it in another place, and, therefore, it would not be respectful that I should discuss them. (Laughter.) lint one of the benefits which this war lias conferred upon us is that it forces us to look to our defensive preparations, and see that they arc equal to the advance of the times and to the new requirements due to modern inventions.

A LONG CONSPIRACY. Another compensation which Ibis longdrawn war confers upon us, to my mind, is that it shows its more and move — never had any doubts we were in the right — (cheers) —that the contest in which we are engaged is the upshot and outcome of a long conspiracy—(cheers) —which we have had to confront, and which, had it been delayed long, we should have confronted in less favourable circumstances. I know some very excellent persons believe the innocent Boers had never any hostile intentions, and that it was the result of the sensitiveness of their feelings on reading a certain dispatch that made them plunge into the hated war. (Laughter.) But though there are such persons, I think as the war went oil their confidence must have been shaken. I may explain to them in their zeal that the nation of the Boers had violated the frontier of the English Empire, and poured down upon the English colonists, when we had committed not a single act which in international law was liable to retribution. But when, month after month, and year after year, unrolled, it appeared that these very innocent persons had laid up the most appalling accumulation of military weapons, in order to accomplish this unintended attack, I think it will require more than ordinary charity to believe those were not the results of a long conspiracy. ACCUMULATIONS OF AMMUNITION.

And it is an ordinary thing, when you open your paper in the morning, to see that so many hundred thousand rounds of ammunition have been taken out of the ground. It did not grow there. (Laughter.) They have been accumulated by long foresight, with the intention of attacking the colonists and the subjects of our Sovereign, and they have nothing to claim youi compassion or sympathy if we exert our force to the utmost limit. There is more to be said. It is not only the past that you must look at: but when you consider the care, the deliberation, and the determination come to a long time back which these vast preparations indicate — this tenacious resistance shows it— you must remember that that points to a disposition which affects the future as much as it does the past, and that, if by any unfavourable caacatination of events those who have made those preparations and planned those attacks should again have the opportunity of giving voice to the hatred of this country you may be sure that the vigour with which the blows in the past have been struck will, if possible, be exceeded in the determination with which they will renew the contest at a future time. Remember those striking words of Sir Alfred Milner, "Never again." The one result of the war will be that this shall never be a danger for our children.

IRELAND AND HOME RULE. I confess it has sometimes crossed my mind that it is another lesson for us. We met here once with the object of preventing the Home Rule Bill being imposed upon this country, but we did not know then what sort of a tight could be maintained by a hostile civil government against a suzerain power, no matter what the overwhelming forces of that suzerain power might be. Supposing that instead of throwing out the Bill in 1893 the measure had passed, and you had had an Irish Government in Dublin, 1 presume from the exhibitions we see in the House ot Commons and elsewhere we might, without any extravagant imagination, have seen there a hostile Government with all the powers of a hostile Government. What, then, would our position have been if we had, not only to moot the Transvaal and the. Orange Free State., but also an equally hostile Ireland by our side'.' There were good reasoue before for resisting Home

i Rule, but since out South African experience I ii >s taught us the power and capacity of mojck'in instruments of war we know now that iit we allowed the hostility of those |v. ho are naturally fiieacis of the Irish i <.(.■■iiiniiiJiity to It.'.vi unlimited p-jwcr against t us, we should liav- 1 . to begin again by eonj o'aermg Li-land, (Cheers.) There/ore, I , think that these two great strains up/vn tiio | resource.-; of th" Empire ate closely allied, ' and yu-j will Ic.u.'i fi'nm what has taken place how imp .. i -.at it is that our efforts i should Dot be relaxed in maintaining the ; Unionist power in the House of ('-Simons. J I see that 1.1:1 Irish opponents have blasted ; that the time v. i! : come when, by the a.--i tion of ilie pendulum, their opportunity will i cuine again, and v. lieu they will be able t« ! ofi'.'i a majority 'to a Parliamentary party ! as i price for the concession of Irish ijj. ! dependence Ido not know whether that) i v. ill take place or not. but it is right that | you should reflect upon the teaching of Kn«j- ---; lisli history, and to know that the posit ! in which we at present stand, however ■ gratifying it may h.> to the feelings of soma ' of its, may load ultimately to great trial, : and lo considerable stress in maintaining | our right*. POWER AND HUNGER. At the beginning of the eighteenth cen- : tiny there was die same predominance of i one party in 13i«.* State, but she lesson it i I aught its was 1 Li.it i; was a dangerous state lof things. If I should not be thought ut- ; tering an impoli-.e expression, I should say i that a party which has. been a long time out : of power becomes afflicted with a peculiar ! kind of hunger. (Laughter.) It would I not be prevented from accepting things j which Mould bring its trial to an end. Do j not think, therefore, that the present conj linuaice of the political balance relieves 113 I from application. On the contrary, it is I a motive for sustaining it : but the time will 1 come when the balance will nor be. so coinj plele. and the desire to predominate will be j dominant in the minds of out opponents, | and we do not know the price they may jbo ptepated to pay. In thanking you for j the manner in which you have received this I toast, J desire to join to it an etirnest acJ knowledgment of your efforts in the maini tenance of union during the past, and to ! represent to you that it is by the co-opera-i tion of men not very closely allied to the j parties of the State, but holding a position j aside, and keeping an independent judgment, it is to their efforts that we must look when the struggle arrives, and that we are bound I to look to when the apparent serenity of j the political atmosphere at this moment is no security to us. There will be the. same j demand upon us in the future as in the past j for zealous, strenuous, vigorous effort for the Imperial interests we. are called upon I to support, and I trust that when the time does come we shall find in associations of this kind the greatest support for interests of this kind. (Cheers.)