LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 10137, 25 August 1904, Page 4

LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

A RELAXED TENSION

LONDON, July 23. The peaceful solution of the Malacca affair has been received here with, a feeling of unmeasured relief, for the incident was one of just tliat kind out of which wars come, and every Englishman desires peace now above all things else. To English ideas tliere was no escape from Russia's dilemma. If the Petersburg is a warship she ought not to have passed the Dardanelles; if she is a commercial vessel, she cannot commit belligerent acts without laying herself open to the charge of piracy. The British Government is showing itself anxious to assist Russia to find a way out of the impasse, and it is hoped tlie incident will now be closed. The fear entertained here was lest authoritative persons m Russia, being somewluit flurried by the course of the war, might argue tliat a short, unsuccessful war ending m tlie settlement of the Manohurian question, possibly with a white Power, would be preferable to an inter- j minable war of which there can be no " honorable settlement with Japan, and though tlie Malacca, incident may happily come to naught, this risk still remains. A well-informed person writing to the Westminster Gazette declares that m the first fortnight of the war Great Britain wa.9 within an ace of a rupture. The Russian bureaucracy, Jiaving assured the Czar and the Russian public that there would be no war, were m a very ugly position wlui-n the Japanese attacked. Manifestly, they were both wrong and unprepared, but their defence was simple. The real villain., they said, was Great Britain, who had urged the Japanese to fight, and provided them with the means of making war, particularly with the use of a naval base at Wei-liai-wei. So there arose a dangerous agitation, acconqianied by a newspaper war, m which one or two leading British journals played a conspicuous part. "For a fortnight," says the writer, "we walked on the edge of a volcano; but the French agreement helped, and some eminent peoK\e on both sides showed good sense. In ussia the war with Japan is greatly disliked, but a war with Great Britain would have been immensely popular." THE CHAMBERLAIN POLICY. Mr Chamberlain's policy luis this week been put clearly before the country. It embraces tliree scales of duties,* namely, a 5 to 10 per cent, tariff for the competing manufacturers of all foreign countries, a lower tariff for the manufacturers of the British, colonies, and a fighting tariff, as yet undefined, for foreign countries which refuse reciprocity. These are the CliamberJain suggestions for the iron aud steel trades, and suggestions for other trades are expected to follow upon similar lines. This is the policy upon which the next general election will be fought, and a hot fight it unquestionably will be. Mr Chamberlain has declared m a public speech this week : "We are more fortunate than Cobden. We luive always enjoyed the sympathy of the Prime Minister and his colleagues." And Mr Balfour does not deny the assertion. Indeed 1 , unless all appearances are misleading, Mr Balfour and his Unionist Ministry will stand solidly with Mr Chamberlain at the next election. The Spectator puts the case neatly when it says: "Mr Balfour will speak out when tihe proper time comes. That is, he will join the Board after allotment." But the Duke of Devonshire and the Free Trade Unionists are now definitely m opposition, and Unionism, as formed in' the home rule days, is dead. WHITAKER WRIGHT. Yesterday saw the epilogue of the Whitaker Wright tragedy, spoken by an auctioneer at Tokeiihouse yard. He recited the wonders of Wright's palace at Lea Park, its pleasanees, woods, and cliain of little .lakes, its glass room under the Like, rubbed by the tails of swimming fishes, and the great marble fountain, part of which is still m packing rases, but the audience was unmoved. Minutes passed, and no bid was made. At last some one offered £90,000. I "'Tlie Avail round the estate cost £37---000." said the auctioneer. Wry slowly tho bidding rose to £145,---000. Then the property was withdrawn, and Wright's desolate monument will continue to stand m the fairest part of Surrey. KAISER AND CZAR, Tho Kaiser and the Czar are very much m the English public mind. As ifor the Kaiser, he seems to find it impossible to say anything which will not provoke English criticism. His telegram to the Eighty-fifth Regiment of Russian Infantry, "My sincere wishes accompany Ulie regiment; God bless its standards," is interpreted as an open avowal of his desire for Russian victory. It is even, compared with his fateful telegram to the late President Kruger after the Jameson raid. \ The Quarterly Review's venomous attack on the Czar, professedly from t'he pen of a Russian official of high rank, must, it is feared, liave a most unfortunate influence upon Russian opinion at this moment when Russia finds it difficult enough to believe m England's neutrality. Of course, if the article really comes from' an official .of high rank, still m Russia, and if its picture of the Czar as a feeble- and superstitious ruler, who, intoxicated with a sense of his own power and mission disregards the advice of. his Ministers and being guided by a grandducal clique and ooscure spiritualists, and is* directly responsible for the war with Japan, the persecution of tlie Jews, the plunder of the Armenian Churdlr, and the attempt of the Imperial family* to extract an enormous fortune out of tlie timber monopoly on the Yalu — if all this really expresses the feeling of. any great' body of Russian officials, the throne, which looks so unassailable, is honeycombed with treason, and a Russian revolution may come at any moment. ARMY REFORM. The very latest thing m British armies laid before Parliament tliis week, by the Balfour Ministry, will probably do no more than provide diversion for the fag end of an exhausting session. Tlie House of Commons applauds economy m the ab-. stract, but is most unlikely to accept the proposal to redtice the volunteer force and make the "other proposed changes, all for Hie sake of saving a mere £490,000 yearly. __________