HOW WARS BREAK OUT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12853, 29 April 1905, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOW WARS BREAK OUT.

ONLY ONE RECENT DECLARATION OF WAR. It is a curious fact that no two wars ever broke out exactly the same way. * The unexpected always happens. In a dim and distant way, of course, thousands have been anticipating that the trouble in the Far East might eventually lead England into a war with Russia, But never did they expect to occur what did occur the other day in the North Sea. Had the gunboat which is usually with the trawling fleet Dc.eu there at that tragic midnight hour there is no doubt about it she would have "gone lor" the Russians had they been three times as numerous. However, as it happened, she was ashore on the Yorkshire sands at the time of what the Tsar calls the " unfortunate occurrence," and the lifeboatmen were engaged in getting her oil'. Otherwise there is 110 doubt that at the time of writing there would be a state of war between the Briton and the Muscovite. To hark back to the time of the Conqueror, it was a, jest pure and simple that brought about the war between. England and France in 1078. and ultimately cost the great William his life. William was " great" in more senses than one. So stout was he. in fact, that he could not walk from place to place, but, had to bo carried. One day his contemporary, Philip of France, deliberately remarked at dinner that William was " like "a fillet of beef on castors, and ought to be exhibited at a prize monarch show." / William heard of this, and in a furious rage ordered his troops to invade at once. This was done, and a. war commenced which ended in the English King being thrown from his horse and killed while superintending THE SIEGE Of XANTES. In more recent times Frederick the Great nearly caused war with England by referring to King George as " a bloated ox." And only the other day there flashed across the wires the news that a lover's jilting had caused a war. The quarrel arose when Dr. C. Bonilla, Minister for Foreign Affairs in Honduras, forsook for another the charming Dolores, daughter of President Sierra. The prospective father-in-law had promised that the doctor should be next President, but with the jilting this arrangement, of course, fell to the ground, and Sierra declared that he would prevent Bonilla from obtaining the Presidency at any cost. In another recent "scrap" between t'.i® army of Ecuador and that of a neighbouring State considerable damage had been done before any explanations were forthcoming. Then it transpired that the rival armies had been "manoeuvering" on the frontier rather too near each other, and could not resist the temptation to try conclusions. The only recent incident, indeed, of a formal declaration of war made before i actual operations were begun was that of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. The French made it because they were in no hurry,.and had an eye for effect. The first intimations England had of the intentions of the Boers came out of the milszles of the Mausers, and, judging from recent events, it seems quite conceivable that the first Russian intimation of a war against Britain will be in the shape of shot and shell dropped among the nursemaids and invalids on the parade at Brighton.—Stray Stories.