The New Zealand Tablet Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1898. SOME RESULTS AND SOME PROBLEMS OF THE LATE WAR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 18, 9 September 1898, Page 17

The New Zealand Tablet Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1898. SOME RESULTS AND SOME PROBLEMS OF THE LATE WAR.

ATIONS, like individuals, seldom come to a better understanding by bartering each other with fists or clubs or rifle-bullets or cannonballs. The struggles between England and 3 France, France and Germany, Germany and Austria, have left behind them enduring roots of bitterness and racial hate which may at any time end once more in that 'trade of W.

barians,' war. The Spanish-American war furnishes a singular and creditable exception to what we may safely regard as the general rule. It was ushered in on the wings of a tempest of abuse of Spanish cruelty, treachery and the rest. The 'yellow' Press found a tumultuous backer in the 4 yellow ' pulpit. Wild-eyed journalists raved and ranted in the Press. A section of the non-Catholic clergy screamed and gyrated like dancing dervishes frcn the pulpTt. And the theme was ever and evermore the unspeakable abominations of the Spaniards and the noble patriotism of the true-born sons of Cuba. Thackeray says in •his Vanity Fair that * one of the great conditions of anger and hatred is that you must tell and believe lies against the hated object in order to be consistent.' And so the lying tales were spun and sent out on all the winds of heaven. It was a devil's dance of falsehood and obloquy : from the Press, for political reasons ; fiom the pulpit, from sectarian hate. For was not Spain a Catholic nation ? And was not this a golden opportunity for tapping the no-Popery drum. It was a fine gara ; but for lofty flights, we ween, the pulpit took the belt. * * # The pulpit rages still. But a great peace is coming over the heart of the people. iEolus blows, but the waves will not rise. There is oil upon the waters. The three months' war has taught three practical lessons to the American people : (1) respect for their Spanish foes ; (2) dislike for their Cuban allies ; (3) a deep sense of the responsibilities which the course of the war has placed upon their shoulders. American sailors beheld their Spanish opponents coolly lay and lire their guns as their war-vessels sank beneath the waves. American soldiers felt the brunt of the stubborn and well-sustained defence of Santiago The decried s Dons' displayed by land and sea a conspicuous gallantry as far as fighting qualities w&it, and hampered throughout by official bungling and ineptitudedid all that heroic men could do to uphold the honour of their flag. Their courage, their self-sacrifice, their patience won the admiration and sympathy of their brave and ready foe. It is not, then, surprising that Spanish prisoners and American victors hobnobbed gaily on board United States ships and in the streets and squares of Santiago ; that American and Spanish prisoners of war were treated with the greatest, courtesy by their respective captors ; and that Admiral Cervera, on his journey to the United States, was received with ovations as though he were a conquering hero returning home. a * # * On the other hand, the relations between the Americans and the Cuban insurgents were strained to the utmost almost from the first moment that United States soldiers had effected a landing on the 'Pearl of the Antilles.' The American soldier, says the Spectator, ' respects the Spaniard who fought stoutly against him. He despises the Cuban who skulked in the rear.' The followers of Maceo refused to help in constructing roads for the American advance Worse still : they massacred their Spanish prisoners by beheading them, and declined to succour the American wounded. The result is stated by the well-informed Washington correspondent of the London 2%neß :— ' For some

weeks past the feeling in high quarters towards the Cubans has been of a kind which, had it arisen three months ago, might have altered the course of events.' Summa • the much-abused Spaniard is being in great part rehabilitated. The Cuban insurgent has long since lost his gilding.

Three difficulties remain : the question of indemnity ; the extent of American occupation ; the fate of the Spanish possessions — if any — that are to become independent. As to indemnity, Spain has fine natural resources, but her Government's financial back is broken. The United States will find sufficient indemnity in the strategic base of Puerto Rico in the Atlantic and a coaling station in the Philippines. The future of the Philippines and of Cuba is the crux of the situation. The United States has, by her victory, contracted responsibilities towards those islands which she mnst now face as best she can. The population of the Philippines consists mainly of Malay half-castes. They are eminently unfitted to govern themselves. We trust that a generous nation will grant to a worthy foeman a sovereignty over the islands. It. is evident that the Spanish flag is to fly no more over Cuba. Only three feasible schemes remain :an independent Cuba, a Cuba under American suzerainty, or a Cuba that will form an integral portion of United States territory. An independent Cuba would probably be as great a calamity as an independent Hayti and San Domingo have been — with its mongrel population placed under the rule of leaders such as came to the surface in the late war. Even a Cuba under American control would furnish knotty problems for Uncle Sam. The great majority of its population is of dark blood. The Spanish rulers had no special loathing for -this, and treated the coloured population with courtesy. _ Uncle Sam's ingrained prejudice against the black strain is only too well known. The Cuban cannot I expect better from him than the coloured population of the South and South-East. And the hot-blooded Cuban will, in so far, resent the change from the old masters to the new. When you add to this, difference of religion and language, you have a mental grasp of a situation that will give Uncle Sam many an uneasy night. He already has his Black Belt with all its fearsome problems. He may well take pause before he widens the range of nagging difficulties which the great, ever-present, and ever-growing race-question has created on his own soil.