Public Feeling on the War Question.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1695, 17 June 1885, Page 3

Public Feeling on the War Question.

Tin’ London _c.ncsrou.ient of the Star writes iluicis no longer evi n (lie reino !-v-t e!- r.co of a War with Russ . Wo ought t- njoic" i'or tiio fact, hut in t;nth the bitterest disappointment prevails. Last week i ..dic\c at IV IST tight men in every dozen whether LilciaU, Tories, or Radicals se-eietiy LaukeivJ for the excitement of an outbreak. Many, of course—soldiers, naval otiiceis, eoutiactors, brokers, iVc., —would have been actualiy henelitted ly war ; hut, apart from this class, there were hundreds of lh u-ands vriio siinp'y looked forward to enjoying the spectacle of a sanguinary struggle between our troops and the Russians as they would a thc.ttiic.il performance ora sensational trial for murder. Tin re would, However, have been much less public interest in the Russian imbroglio throughout if we had anything else to talk and write about. A nrst class minder full of blood curdling ho:t is, and leading up to enthralling scenes "t the Police Court or Old Bailey, would have knocked the bottom out of the Penj-deli quests n days ago. Look at our Soudan business. Who cares a straw about the siege of Khart'.um or " smashing the Mahdt ” now ? Since Gordon died and the Kile campaign temporarily wound up, public interest has complvtt iy “ fizzled ” out. Two mouths ago if any misguiding journalist had dared to propose withdrawing our troops from the Soudan, and leaving the Arabs to fry in their own gu-jse, be would have been characterised as "a rile R itiic.il dog.” Yet the other day, when the Russian war scare was at its height, Liictals and Tories aiike favored the icon