EUROPEAN UNREST.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4647, 28 April 1902, Page 4

EUROPEAN UNREST.

The unrest in Europe is at present widespread and' deep-seated. Scarcely any country on that continent is free from social ’ and political troubles. Doubtless the industrial depression that has settled down upon European nations like a pall has augmented the political dissatisfaction that is now manifesting itself in riot and outrage. When people are politically oppressed, if depression overtakes them industrially, they are prone to become seditious and revolutionary. This has been the habit of several European nations, and until they have been granted free institutions and a broadened franchise, together with an enlightened political education, they will doubtless continue to have recourse to violence to obtain redress. When the highly-civilised nations of the world, at least those endowed with political freedom based upon a wide franchise, desire to institute reforms, they have resort to the platform and the ballot-box, but when the apostles of anarchy seek improved conditions they raise the rod flag of riot and plot for the overthrow and destruction of society. The socialistic leaders of the Continent seem to be actuated in some cases more by an eagerness to display their power and authority over the members of their organisations than by any sincere wish to improve their industrial and political condition. The recent threatened strike in Franco is an instance of the recklessness of labour leaders. They were prepared to disorganise the whole of the mining business of that country, call out of employment some one hundreji and sixty thousand miners, and provoke an industrial conflict entailing loss to all parties, although it was admitted that miners’ wages were higher at that lime than they have been for years past. Jt was only the determination of a large section of the mining population not to respond to the call that led the leaders to abandon thoir intention. The manifesto that has just been issued as the political expression of Radical opinion in the Republic shows that a better spirit is now prevailing, and that the people are forsaking revolutionary methods of ' enforcing reforms. Still, the occasional outbursts of anarchism in the larger cities of France demonstrate that the Republic is far from enjoying political peace. Across the Pyrenees, the recent rioting at Barcelona, when the damage done cost nearly half a million sterling to repair, was ample proof of the unrest prevalent in Spain. The condition of Austria is little better. Trieste, a short while ago, was in a state of siege for some days, and although the socialists called this a peaceful agitation in favour of reform, the streets were filled with rioters who cried, “ Long live anarchy!” and pelted the soldiers with stones. When fho Premier denounced this conduct as sedition, the socialists exclaimed “ It’s a lie,” and created an uproar. Then the rioters raided shops, destroy-

ed public property, pulled down lampposts, fired the escaping gas in the streets, and when the Premier denounced these proceedings as rebellious he evoked further anarchical uproar. Germany is comparatively quiet at present, bat no one knows how soon even there anarchy may strike at the throne of the Kaiser; and we have seen that the condition of Italy is one of the most abject, industrially, that Europe just now presents. The outlook in the Balkan provinces is far from reassuring. Fighting has already taken place in the mountain fastnesses in the north, and the Sick Man of Europe is strengthening the garrisons on his frontier to prevent the encroachment of the aggressive Bulgarians. Belgium was threatened the other day with civil war. The socialists demanded the revision of the constitution and the granting of universal suffrage as the price of peace. The Conservatives opposed this demand as premature, and declared that universal suffrage would not be acceptable at any price. This attitude was regarded as provocative of civil war. Dynamite outrages took place at various parts of the country, twenty thousand miners were to be armed, rioting became prevalent, and the police were stoned in the streets. The motion for the revision of the constitution was rejected by twenty votes, and the crisis reached its height. Armed with rifles and ball cartridges, the military paraded the streets of Brussels, and notwithstanding the pleadings for peace of M. Van d6r Velde, who seems to the Daniel O’Connell of the hour in Belgium, the Civil Guard fired upon tho mob with fatal effect. However, the Socialists of Brussels are not prepared for a cam-, paign of force, and so tho political disturbances are for the time being quietening down. Then, our cablegrams concerning Russia reveal a deplorable state of affairs. Factory operatives in Moscow struck for higher wages and shorter hours. They rioted and plundered, and the military being requisitioned to quell tho disturbance, many were killed on both sides. Not only among the Russian working classes is a revolutionary movement manifest, but in all centres of education the same unrest is dominant. Last year the Czar’s Minister of Education was assassinated. This year the Minister of the Interior has been similarly dealt with, while the refusal of the Czar to modernise education has led to the resignation of M. Vannovsky, who has acted as Minister of. Education since the assassination of his predecessor. The knout has been brought into use, and the .Cossacks have been let loose upon the mob, to the death of many and the injury of women and children. All this unrest on tho Continent of Europe is, after all, but tho evidences of national evolution. Encrusted about with the forms of despotic government, the people are being quickened by education, and seek' to burst the bonds that now depress and enthrall them. They have acquired some light and Reading by the spread of political intelligence, but to them “ Heaven holds but' one red star, Tyrannicide,” autocracy by which they are governed. The determination of the authorities to suppress the publication of proclamations setting forth tho iniquities Of their Government will but add fuel to the fiery enthusiasm of revolutionists. When tho centres of intellectual'activity load the cause of reform, and when their manifestoes reach the industrial and labouring classes, no Power in Europe will be able to withhold justice and the franchise from the people. The state of Europe may be alarming, hut even in the history of Great Britain are recorded outbursts of popular agitation as threatening and revolutionary as those now disturbing other nations. The unrest marks an evolutionary stage. It will pass array when tho despotic forms of government, with all their corruption and cruelty, have been replaced by such constituted authority as is “ broad based upon a people’s will.” Not by the destruction of society, nor by tho assassination of Ministers and monarchs, but by the education of the people and the firm demand of moderate leaders for the extension of political rights will Europe find the way to peace and prosperity.