THE FIGHTING NATIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4295, 2 March 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE FIGHTING NATIONS

IS BRITAIN THE MOST WARLIKE?

Few people will bo surprised 10 learn that Great Britain, has been a long way ahead of other European nation;, iu the groat game of war during Queen Victoria's reign. ' Tho wars great and small which Groat Britain has boon engaged iu number in the neighbourhood of sixty—or almost enn fur every year of the Queen's reign.

They include (writes a correspondent of tho "Daily Express”) big wars such as that on, which wo are -still engaged—the Grim can War. the. Indian Mutiny, the cam.paigjrs in Zulu land. Afghan-

istan;, Ashanti, Egypt, tho Soudan, China, and Burma, besides, such miscellaneous items as operations in Chitrsil, the Tllack Mountains, Toohi, and tho Miraxi Valley. There have been wars during the present reign which few people over think of. Who now remembers that wo once had a war with Persia? And yet it is, comparatively, not so long ago. There have been four -Ashanti and throe Chinese wars. These aro startling facts, and bring home to all of ns the warlike character of (ho Anglo-Saxon race.

It is hardly an. exaggeration to say that British guns have hardly censed 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. IVcsb 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. France and Russia each have ten campaigns to their credit. The former has crossed swords with Germany, Austria, and Russia, (the- last in alliance with England and Turkey) in her time, and has carried the trielour into Dahomey, Morocco, China, Mexico, Siam, and Madagascar, with more or lc.--s .success.

Russia’s luck in war lias not been startling. She had to bond 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 campaigns have given her a vast amount of trouble, notably the unpleasantness in Khokaiul in 1875 and 1878.

The Turk is a -first-class, fighting-man, and the Crescent has been, almost uniformly successful when it lias flown in battle. The first Greek campaign (during this reign) took place in 1853 and the. last in 1897, but Hellas was humbled every time. The Ottoman Empire has also had trouble with Montenegro and Servia, and lias com© out on top; and though defeated by Russia in 1877, the plucky light put up by the Turk will always bo remembered with admiration. It was an, honourable defeat. Spain comes next with six foreign wars, the first in Morocco in 1859 and the last with the United States in 1898. Austria, Greece, and Italy have four campaigns each; Germany lias the same number,' in each cf w hich she was sweet *A?nl : r-r.d litt'e Denmark brings up ■I <* r sar ith two. Both conflicts were wills Prussia, and in both the bigger nation won. The map of the world has bo a greatly altered since the Queen ascended tho thronej and ca :-;e whole Britain has no reason to regret these changes, for they have almost invariably meant expansion of Empire for us. Tire price of Empire has often boon dear. but. our gallant sailors and soldiers have ncv<-r grudged paying it in full.