LETTER FROM LONDON.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9796, 16 July 1903, Page 4

LETTER FROM LONDON.

* LONDON, June 20. 1 The Ministry have struggled through another stormy week. The Chamberlain ■ wedge has cut the Cabinet itself m lftilf, and has split the Ministerial party into three fragments. The Chamberlainites, '' about half the party, are nicknamed the "Dearloafers," the free trade Tories, nicknamed the New Little Englanders, ; are about a quarter, and the hesitators 1 are about another, quarter. ' At this critical moment the Ministry are threatened with a break m the Nat--1 ionalist compact, which thrice lately lias . saved them m the division lobbies. Their one hope is the Nationalist knowledge that the Lords will reject any alternative m the shape of a radical Irish Land Bill. The probability is that Secretary Wyndham will make some small concession which the Nationalists will accept, and the Ministry will end the session with a fair show of unity. Then Mr Chamberlain's big fight will begin. He will start m Glasgow m the middle of September. One hundred and fifty members of Parliament, who are his sympathisers, if not yet out and out his supporters, are being personally coached by him how best to appeal to their coni stituents. One of these members of Parliament tells me that Mr Chamberlain flinches at nothing. He is gathering careful statistics to meet the cry of a i dear loaf, which already has won several British bye elections, and certainly had some influence in^the decisive Socialist victory m Germany. Mr Chamberlain is prepared to prove that the British cereals duty, yielding 2,500,000 sterling, i left the prices of food unaffected; also, that the prices of bread m France were I as low after as before the Meline tariff. Mr Chamberlain's case goes on to contend with 'great elaboration of detail that i even if bread should be slightly dearer, : wages would be advanced, and the gene- • ral industrial conditions would benefit ; from retaliation upon the slaughter mar- • ket tactics of the German and American bounty-fed steel, iron, and other inanu- ■ facturers. Mr Balfour may only timidly , whisper retaliation. Mr Chamberlain > shouts it from the housetops. He points ► triumphantly to the German and semiofficial press as evidence of the potency f of the policy and alleges that even the - threat of retaliation has stopped Ger- • many's surtax on Canadian goods, and ' also has damped down Germany's officially avowed policy to withdraw most-favored-nation treatment from British i as well as colonial goods. Among Cham- ■ berlainites a statement is alleged to have i been made by President Roosevelt to a British M.P. a year ago is also widely ■ quoted. The M.P. asked : "What would - America do if England retaliated?" i "Do!" President Roosevelt is reported to [ have replied, "Why, of course, we would i say, 'Don't shoot; we will come down.'" , This sounds improbable, but is seriously quoted. Lord Rosebery's refusal to join m the ■ personal attacks on Mr Chamberlain, of r course, have revived the movement to . create a Rosebery-Chamberlain party. . The only obstacle to their union, says the Daily Mail, is that Lord Rosebery . regards Mr Chamberlain's action as uni timely and unduly progressive. Addres- . sing its million readers, the Mail invites [ public pressure on both men to form - themselves into a centre of a new party of imperial efficients. It is an old cry, ; and is likely to remain nothing more , than a cry. As an illustration of the growth of i Anglo-Japanism it is noteworthy that arrangements have been made for fifty Japanese students to make a tour of the British colonial empire. They will leave Tokio m the middle of July, and will proceed direct to Australia and New , Zealand, where they will spend three months. Thence they will go to Canada and return to India and Japan by way of South Africa. Each will be expected to make a separate report upon the agricultural and commercial position and possibilities of the countries visited. Russia's policy towards the Jews and th& Finlanders has provoked bitter feeling here, though it is half hidden by the excitement m domestic politics. It is quite true that the expulsion of the limes correspondent has not greatly agitated Englishmen, as the Russian Government expected that it would, but nevertheless it is felt that so arbitrary an act of violence makes it almost impossible to dissipate the British popular suspicions which obstruct- a better AngloRussian understanding. Even French .journals grimly remind their readers that it is French money that buys the sabres with which Russian soldiers are now busy m Finland and elsewhere. "If" sigh Russia's friends, "the Czar could only find another Cavour!" The Suez canal returns are disconcerting to those who insist that British trade is going to the dogs. Of 2733 vessels and a net tonnage of 8,061,483 passing IrM I ]** 1 ! 9 canal> 1906 V€ssels and 0,84«,46U of the tonnage are British, being 69 per cent, of the number of ships and 72 per cent, of the tonnage. Germany is represented by 332 vessels. Her whole tonnage furnished 13 per cent, compared with the previous year. The•returns give an interesting picture of development. The tonnage has doubled m twenty years, while the receipts have increeised from sixty million to 103 million francs. The Times correspondent at Pekin sends an account of a great fire there winch consumed the offices of the Board of Revenue. Every effort was made to suppress the, flames ; but there were' no scientific appliances, the citizens relied on beating gongs and drums, and it was only by the exertions of the Legation Uuards that the calamity was prevented from becoming serious. The wonder is that Asiatic cities, which are always full of wooden houses, mat huts, and narrow Janes, escape total destruction for such long periods. The people of the United States are not m favor with Nature just at present. Scarcely a day passes without a report of some considerable disaster, and two of them — the forest fires on the border of Canada, and the floods m the Mississippi — have been on a prodigious scale. One does not trust statistics m regard to such events, but the two calamities together must have involved a loss of many millions, especially if we reckon the expenditure m saving the cities, notably St. Louis. The fires, though not the floods, have extended to Canada, and have devastated whole counties, sweeping away flourishing townships as if they were little farms. We are perpetually grumbling at our climate, but Nature, which refuses us many things, is always on serious matters benign. Our tornadoes sweep away hayricks, our earthquakes stop clocks, and our fires spare cities, and seem enormous chiefly to insurance offices. Months of continuous drought are nearly unknown, and our greatest natural danger is that the increase of our population may one day overtax our water-supply. Even that we may meet by making our schemes of water-storage larger and more scientific.