THE FIGHTING NATIONS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1523, 28 February 1901, Page 6

THE FIGHTING NATIONS

IS BRITAIN THE MOST WARLIKE? Few people will be surprised io learn that Great Britain has been a long way ahead of other European nations in the great game of war during Queen Viotoria’s reign. . The wars great and small which Great Britain has been engaged in number in the neighbourhood of sixty—or almost one fur every year of the Queen’s reign. They include (writes a correspondent or the “Daily Express”) big wars suph as that on which we are still engaged—the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, the campaigns in Zululand, Afghanistan , Ashanti, Egypt, the Soudan, China, and Burma, besides such miscellaneous items as "operations in .Chitrai, the Black Mountains, Toohi, and the Mirazi Valley. There have been wars during the present reign which few people ever think of. Who now remembers' that we once had a war with! Persia? And yet it is, comparatively, not so long ago. There nave been four Ashanti and three Chinese wars. These are startling facts, and bring home to all of us the warlike character of the Anglo-Saxon race. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that British guns have hardly ceased to thunder and British bayonets to strike terror into the enemy' in all the sixtythree years of the reign-—sometimes in the foetid, miasmic swamps of West Africa, sometimes on the icy plains of the Crimea, sometimes on the sandy wastes of the- Soudan, but in whatever quarter of the globe, with honour. Franco and Russia each have ten campaigns to their credit. The former bias crossed swords with Germany, Austria, and Russia (the. last in alliance with England and Turkey) in her* time," and, has carried the triclour into Dahomey, Morocco, China,, . Mexico, Siam, andi Madagascar, with.more or less success.Russia’s luck in war has not been startling. She had t-O bend the knee in the Crimea to a combined army of English, French,- Turks, and Sardinians, though she was, however, successful in the conflict with -Turkey in 1877. Her Afghan and Central Asian compaigna have given her a vast- amount of trouble, notably the unpleasantness in Khokand in 1875 and 1878.- ’ _ The Turk is a- first-class fighting-man, and the Crescent has been almost‘uniformly successful when it has. fk>wh|ini battle. The first- Greek campaign (during this reign) took place in 1853 and the last in 1897, hut Hellas was humbled every time. The Ottoman Empire-ha® also had trouble with Montenegro and Servia, and.has -earn© out on top,;.: and though defeated/by Russia in 1877, the plucky fight put up by the Tixfk .will always be remembered with admiratiqn. It was an honourable defeat. ySplau. comes next with, ‘six foreign wargjy Jhe first in Morocco in 1859 and tFe Ipkt with the United States in 1898. Austria, Greece, and Italy have four campaigns each; Germany has the same number, in each of which she was successful ; and little Denmark brings .up the rear with two. Both conflicts were with Prussia, and in both the bigger nation won. : D ' .-/’ The map of the world has been greatly altered since the Queen ascended the throne, and on the whole Britain lias no reason to regret these changes, for they have almost invariably meant expansion of Empire for us. The price yof Empire has often been dear, but bin* gallant sailors and soldiers have never grudged' paying, it. in full.