STILL PREPARING.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 6498, 28 April 1888, Page 2

STILL PREPARING.

♦ General Boulanoer's agitation has had one palpable effect in reducing the French Government to the necessity of convincing the nation that it is ready for war. M. de Freycinet states that it is the intention of France to have a million of men on the frontier and another million in tho | interior, while it is proposed to extend the term of service to 25 years. The Chamber of Deputies is to be asked to vote a sum of fifty-two million francs (upwards of two millions sterling) for defences at Brest, Cherbourg, Toulon, and Cambray. This is part of the reply to the Boulanger demonstration. Tbo opposition of the students of Paris to the " mutinous soldier," as Jules Ferry termed him, showed that the bourgeoisie, from whom they are largely recruited, are not favourable to military adventurer ', and it is questionable whether even a majority of the Fauborga is with him But Boulanger has undoubtedly found a weak spot in the armour of his opponents in the matter of military preparations. The Floquet could afford to postpone the revision of the Constitution, and were not afraid to let the President proceed on his tour; but they dare aot fe*ye the question of preparedness for war hi doubt for a moment, Row perfect .an indication

of the temper of the nation J The next war when it doeß come — and it cannot be long deferred if the signs of the times are not altogether deceptive — will be the greatest the world has ever seen. Millions of men armed to the teetb, ready to march to the frontier at a day's notice, with arms of precision and destruction far surpassing anything conceived of at the time of the last great conflict — are to decide ia. the coming war the fate of empires. Yet every one of these powers calls itself Christian — the followers of the Man of Peace. Shallow sophists talk of "the march of civilisation," and even Ministers of him who ordered the sword into its scabbard, pray to " the God of battles !" All this mockery and hypocrisy is exposed and laid bare by the daily intelligence of millions of men being marshalled and prepared for mutual destruction. Yet how deeply interesting intellectually, if depressing morally, is all this preparation. The strategical speculat tions are inexhaustible, > and even a Von Moltke cannot fathom the issue of the next conflict.