MR. HALDANE'S SPEECH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13286, 19 September 1906, Page 7

MR. HALDANE'S SPEECH.

IMPROVING FOREIGN . RELATIONS. ..;-', By Telegraph.—Press • Association.— Copyright. London, September 17. Me. Haldane, in his speech at Newcastle on Saturday, expressed his belief that, , the Unionists would pull themselves together early enough to prevent the Liberals remaining in office for a decade. Any Government, in his opinion, had been long enough in office after five years.

Proceeding to summarise the work of the Government, the Secretary for War said that under Sir Edward Grey our relations abroad had improved. Those with France were closer; and he (Sir E. Grey) had brought Great Britain into friendly relations with Russia, notwithstanding the latter' difficulties. Moreover, our relations with Germany were better than a short time ago. Beginning from next month Germany would commence to withdraw nearly half her troops from South-west Africa. The Liberals, Mr. Haldane added, had sought to meet legitimate labour grievances.

When the rebellion in South-west Africa broke out in 1903, there were about 800 German troops there. During the latter part of 1905 the; forces from Europe had been increased to 14,000. From comments made- in the House of Commons recently, it would appear that Great Britain has objected to the presence of no large a force in. the German territory now that the rebellion has been finally crushed. Indeed it has been suggested that when the relations between England and Germany were rather strained last year, the Gorman Government sent unnecessarily large reinforcements to South-west Africa. The. reason for Great Britain's protest is that the presence of large German forces there is a cause of unrest among the Boers, leading them to believe that some day they and the Germans could join hands to drive the British out of South Africa.