WAR WITH ENGLAND.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8412, 11 January 1899, Page 4

WAR WITH ENGLAND.

6 WHAT IT WOULD MEAN TO FRENCH TRADE AND INDUSTRY. A miokt slntly of trade returns discloses llie fact tliat Fiance would lose heavily by engaging in war with England. In 1597 she exported to England goods worth .i"oS,S-tb',ooo. In the s;imo year England exported to France goods worth only 1'1!),517,000. The British exports to France are less than one-twelfth of our total exports. The French exports to England lire nearly one-third of France's to'.al exports. Tims, with war, France would lose at once nearly one-third of her trade, and England only one-twelfth. But hore it should lie noticed that the French exports to England are goorls for the most part which we could pet fei-tly well do without, Imy with great, advantage horn our colnnii"*, or make at home. The stoppage of the 2,000,000 odd hundied weight oi whe.a which France annually sends us wcmld lead to v demand fur Indian and Canadian wheat, and would bring kick snmo land in England into culthaiion, thus benefiting the agricultural classe*. The intemiption of the French butter and egg exportation would assist the Hrilish iiiicl Canadian farmer, if it slightly wised prices in London. The nation would sain indirectly, while the ruin iiillictcd upon the French peasantry, who look to this source of profit for their livelihood, would be widespread. French silks would no longer be worn by patriotic Englishwomen, and would be replaced by the product, of the .Spitaliields looms, which is far more tasteful. French gloves would Rive way to lUitish, while the obsolescent habit of going to Paris ilressnuUers for dresses would receive its tinal blow. Fiench wines would be replaced by Oennan and Portuguese, to the great uilvaMiigtj "f these last two countries. After all, hock is as delicate and wholesotrc as claiet, and port is not more d'-Vii-iinus than r>Hri;midy. Clißinpiynp '■<•'. Fitucli ;.iouth would In: replaced by

the mild Swiss beverage known to Alpinists. The British exports to France are, however, for the most part things which France wants and must have for her manufactures. Coal, for example, she can get nowhere elso of our English quality. i Nor is it only in trade that France ' would slider. Slie would lose her profits made from the British tourist. Her great railways, especially the Nord and the Paris-Lyons, would bo very hard hit. The huge hotels of Paris would empty as if by magic. The vast establishments which line the coast of the Riviera would he reduced to rueful bankruptcy. It is the Englishman who pays for everything there, and who lias made them what they are. It is a little difficult to understand why Englishmen should bestow nil their favors upon ungrateful, hostile France, when friendly Italy has such beautiful resorts as Ncrvi and Rapallo, as yet hardly known to the British tourist. If these places became English centres, the Italian gain would bo enormous. Nothing on the French Riviera can compare with the glorious scenery in the neighborhood of the Carrara Mountains. As France has so much to lose, as her people will feel war so bitterly at every turn, is it not inexplicable that she should even talk of fighting for places the position of which not one Frenchman in a hundred knows ? __________