HOME NEWS SUMMARY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1716, 18 January 1905, Page 2

HOME NEWS SUMMARY.

(From “Public Opinion.”) ROYAL, COURTESIES. LONDON, November 18. King Edward’s visits abroad bave been of such benefit to the cause of International relationship as to impart a new interest to the comings and goings of monarchs. This week Great Britain has welcomed again to her shores the King; and Queen of Portugal. The people have vied with the Sovereign in their efforts to ifilpress the Royal guests with the cordial goodwill entertained by Great Britain for Portugal. Though Portugal to-day is not the great Power she once was, her vitality is considerable, and her pride is not one whit less than it ever w T as. Sentiment is the real basis of the excellent relations subsisting between the two countries as both Sovereigns suggested in their speeches at Wednesday’s banquet, when King Edward announced that a treaty of Arbitration had just been signed. England and Portugal have for long been excellent friends, and King Edward has spared no pains to make them better friends. King Carlos has had no easy task to fulfil in governing his people, but his popularity abroad is only a mild reflex of his popularity at home. ANGLO-FRENCH AGREEMENT. After a week’s debate the French Chamber on Saturday last, by 443 votes to 105, agreed to the Anglo-French Agreement. The discussion made it abundantly clear that whatever British politicians like Lord Rosebery may think of the compact, in France it is by no means considered that Great Britain has got the worst of the bargain. M. Delcasse, indeed, regarded the opposition as sufficiently serious to induce him to accept a motion in favour of an attempt to “improve” the terms of the Agreement so far as it relates to Newfoundland. If some people in England dislike the arrangement in regard to Morocco, a larger number in France dislike the idea of giving up all claims to the French shore in the British Colony. If France were not surrendering a good deal, M. Delcasse, we may be sure, would not have treated certain criticisms as tenderly as he did. We said when the Agreement was signed that it was an excellent compromise. There is give and take on both sides, and the debate in the Chamber only serves to convince us that Lord Lansdowne effected the best' possible bargain. A PERTURBED NATION. M. Dlelcasse’s action was no doubt influenced by a desire to see the Agreement carried before the insecurity of the Combes Ministry resolves itself into actual defeat. The domestic policy of the Government has roused up a number of enemies among the reactionaries and in the Church who will spare no effort to bring about M. Combes’ downfall. General Andre, the War Minister, has resigned in order, as he says, that he should not remain a cause of Republican dissension and has been succeeded by a Radical Socialist-. M. Berteaux. The passions excited by General Andre’s methods at the War Office will, it is to be feared, not die down whilst the colleagues who supported him remain in office. Espionage in the Army was, to a considerable extent, directly due to the anti-Church policy of the whole Government. Any hope which may have remained that the differences between the Vatican and the Republic might be disposed of without a final split has now been destroyed by a fully reported speech made by the Pope at a “secret” Consistory on Monday. Pius X. charges the French Government with violating the terms of the Concordat, and his protests were couched in terms which mean, if they mean anything, that there can be no compromise. MR CHAMBERLAIN’S OPPONENTS. The Duke of Devonshire, taking his cue from Mr Asquith, is convinced that Mr Chamberlain must he got rid of in the interests of the Empire. At a great free trade meeting at Rawtenstall on Saturday ho repeated what is rapidly becoming a mere parrot cry, that if reciprocal duties were adopted they would surely lead to differences and misunderstandings between the Colonies and the Mother Country. He does not definitely either reject or accept a policy of retaliation, but he is quite convinced that a policy of preference would be fatal and must at any cost be rendered impossible. These solemn warnings will be read with amusement in the Colonies. Colonial statesmen do* not share the forebodings of the Asquiths and-the Devonshires of the Old Country. Mr Irvine, the ex-Premior cf Victoria, has been complaining of the amazing ignorance of Australia which he discovered in England, and this tariff rcform opposition has certainly not tended to show that knowledge of Colonial affairs and._snntimerits is increasing. Mr Irvine lias no doubt that Mr Chamber-

lain’s policy of preferential tariffs would promote a better understanding in every sense of the word. But of course the free fooder knows diffenently. Mr Watson, the Australian Labour leader, and late Premier, has also given further emphatic evidence of his dissent from the view of preferential tariffs held by the Labour leaders at Home. There is, he is convinced, no reason why they should make the food of the British working man dearer. ENGLISH BYE-ELECTIONS. Bye-elections continue to prove that the tariff question is not costing the Unionists votes, hut encouraging the Radicals to whip up ©very available supporter. Even at West Monmouth a fortnight ago the—frori a party point of view—irreconcilable opinions of Sir John Ccckburn did not prevent the Unionists from supporting him in greater numbers than any Unionist had polled hitherto. In the same way the Horsham electors have returned Lord Tumour, who is at once the newest and youngest member of Parliament, by a majority of 784, which is only hall the Unionist majority of 1803, when the last contest took place. But the reduced majority is not due to a falling off in the Unionist vote. On the contrary, the Unionist vote was a record one, a.nd the difference was accounted for by the great increase in the Radical poll. The Duke of Devonshire dees not think the General Election can be very far off. When it comes it will be of peculiar interest to learn to what extent the experience of the bye-elections is reproduced throughout the country. If it is reproduced generally, it means not the great majority the Radicals, according to the National Liberal Federation. expect, but a small majority, useless for practical purposes. BRITISH COTTON. The Royal Charter of the British Cotton Growing Association, the grant of which was celebrated by a dinner in Manchester on Saturday, sets the seal to the enterprise which is to render alien corners in cotton in the future a matter of comparative indifference to Lancashire. Sir Alfred Jones and his colleagues have taken action, which the Southern States of America realise will deprive them of the control of British markets and which the Briton realises will in due time make the Empire .independent of foreign supplies. The Government have given the Corporation all the advice and support they could manage, and that there might be no question of the national character of the movement King Edward sent a telegram from Sandringham wishing it success, and expressing a hope that the results to the Empire may be of the greatest value. Lancashire has ever been the helpless victim of the foreign producer, because tlie unique opportunities presented by the British dominions in the West Indies and Africa, in India and Australia, have not been utilised. It required the coincidence of a corner and of the experiments of a man like Sir Alfred Jones to awaken the public, to a sense of its duty to itself. Theexample set, it is to be hoped,will be widely imitated. TRIBUTE TO LORD SALISBURY. Lord Rosebery was in his happiest vein on Monday, when he unveiled a bust of Lord Salisbury in the debating hall of the Oxford Union Society. It was a charming portrait of one of the greatest of Englishmen which Lord Rosebery drew for the benefit of his audience. He described Lord Salisbury as the proud man too proud to show his pride; as the cynic who was shy in public and the gentlest and most affectionate of men in his domestic relations; as the caustic critic whose wit dried up as with acid inopportune questions ; as the great noble to whom wealth and honours were mere dross ; as a hater of personal advertisement in the days when personal publicity was the very essence of the strength of politicians and writers. In Lord Rosebery’s opinion—and he spoke as one who has had access to the archives of the Foreign Office, which bear’ the chief tributes to Lord Salisbury’s wonderful mastery of international affairs —the greatest moment of the late statesman’s life was 1878, when he shut himself up in a room and unaided apparently by permanent officials, wrote the famous despatch on the San Stefano Treaty, “which would remain for long generations to come one of the historic State papers in the English language.”