A STRANGE LETTER.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3788, 28 May 1885, Page 3

A STRANGE LETTER.

In the fac3 of the wild eagerness to join in our struggle iu the Soudan with which the Australians have been credited, the following communication from the current issue of “Truth,” roads somewhat strangely. The writer is a Now South Welshman just arrived in London. He says : —“As one who has lived many years in Australia, may I be permitted to inform the British public of the true state of feeling among the majority of native Australians in respect of the Soudan War and themselves ? The Stuart-Dalley Ministry of New South Wales sent the troops from thence at their own instigation, and not at that of the people. I need not, sir, refer to the gross, inaccurate, and imaginative messages of Eeuter, the only authority we have of Australian affairs in this country ; but I venture to say that the report that the New South Wales troops embarked amid enthusiasm was a falsehood. It wm proposed Iflflt September or October in Australia to gen£ troops to lb* Soudan, and, as I was in that epuntry, 1 can positively state that nine-tenths of the people were against it, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia will never send any troops —that I can for certain predict ; and the division in the House of Assembly at Sydney on the question of that (Jovernment sending troope shows that a strong feeling exists even in that Chamber composed of squatters aod other wealthy men, who care not a jot for the country—against disturbing the peace of the colonies, Twenty-four members virtually voted for the recall of the troops; and we may safely estimate that as paany morn would have voted against the /expedition if it bad not involved New South V^ al e ß in the . r » dicu^ol ? B attitude of vaccilation ; flvhich would certainly have been rather infra dig.

Let roe state, sir, on behalf of ninclenths of the Australian people—l do not count sham Australians, most of them born in this country, and therefore having their sympathies with Old World animosities—that they do no? approve i-f the Ministers offering help in the shameless Soudan War, IV e are a peaceful people ; our country is the only one on the earth never yet cursed by war, and we wish to live in peace with all races not excepting Central Africans. The Soudan trouble is nothing to,ns—it is an English affair, not an Australian concern. Men holding power in Ausrralia are mostly English ; hut, sir, wait until the native-born secures the upper hand, and the English people will find that Australians will not help and connive at wicked wars carried on by the old nations of Europe, who are never happy except they are carrying bloodshed and ruin into distant c 'entries.” I have heard Mr Archibald of the “ Sydney Bulletin,” enunciate sentiments very similar to the above. The whole idea of sending troops, etc, originated, he avers, in the scheming brain of a Sydney statesman, very anxious to secure his K.O.M.G. There was no spasm of loyalty whatever. The politician simply played off one rich colonist’s vanity against’ another’s. If A sub scribed handsomely to the Patriotic Fund B would do ditto ; D wasn’t going to be outdone by C, nor E by F, and so the game was played. Whether this be true or not. one thing is certain, Mr Dailey will be made K.C.M.G.