The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-01-29 00:00:00

THE WAR FEVER IN EUROPE.

IMPENDING HOSTILITIES BETWEEN

FRANCE AND GERMANY.

The Daily News on Monday published the following
paragraph in rarge type, and followed it up by
two articles on the "fighting strength of the rival
Powers :" Information accumulating at the Foreign
Office with respect to the movements and intentions
of France and Germany has, we learn, created a feel-
ing of grave apprehension in the minds of her
Majesty's Ministers. It is believed that the Govern-
ment of the Republic are sincerely desirous of avoid-
ing an outbreak of war at tlie present moment, whilst
the peaceful views of the German Emperor are well
known, Nevertheless, circumstances are rapidly
tending towards a crisis. The first movement will
probably be on the part of Germany, which, it is
reported, will on an early day ask France what is
the meaning of recent military movements towards
tho German frontier.

, The Paris correspondent of the Times commuicated
I the followitig to that journal on Sunday: No sooner
are external alarms hushed than internal disquietudes
ensue. On Friday night the fall of the Goblet Cabinet
1 teemed certain. The entire Cabinet stood committed
1 to M. Dauphin's Budget scheme, and the Budget
Committee, after agreeing to the military credits re-
jected that scheme. The conviction was that the
Cabinet would stand firm and would be beaten.
Ministers, however, like the astronomer of the fable,
fall only into snares which they do not see at thei:
feet. The cabinet decided on accepting the reso-
lution of the Budget Committee for an issue
of six-year Treasury bonds to the amount of
167,000,000 L—namely, 86,000,000 f. for the army,
26,000,000 f. for the navy and 55,300,000 f. for
public works. There were three dissentients,
Messrs. Goblet, Dauphin, and Flourene, who, how-
ever, gave way to their colleagues, thus offering the
singular spectacle of the Premier and the Minister of
Finance abiding by the opinion of less important
members of the Cabinet. The committee will report
to the Chamber to-morrow on this, the sixth Budget
scheme. Odd as it is to see the question settled by
the Ministers least concerned with cr responsible for
finance, the fall of the Cabinet, had it remained
obstinate, appeared curtain, so that from a genert4
standpoint a decision which staves off a crisis is
matter for rejoicing. How, long, however, this crisis
is delayed it would be difficult to say, and it is to
be feared that the present sacrifice which the present
Cabinet has made will not greatly prolong its exist-
ence. On the other hand, those who, according to all
probability, will take up the succession have no inte-
rest that a crisis should again happen in the midst
of the Budget debate, for reasons which are so evident
that it is almost superfluous to enumerate them. A
new Cabinet entering on office with a vote on account
. will always remain at the mercy of a coalition of the
Bight and Left—that is to say, of a coalition of those
who are not represented in it. It will be master of
nothing, and everybody will have the mastery over it.
There is thus a great probability that all desire to
hasten alai shorten the debate, excepting the Cabinet
itself, of which the existence seems dependent on the
discussion, and of which the fall appears likely
to occur when the Budget has been voted. This
state of affairs gives the key to many incidents
which otherwise would remain obscure. It
shows at once the weakness of the Cabinet,
which knows that it cannot offer resistance to a
vigorous assault, and the hesitation of those who
might overturn it, but who do not want to do so as
long as the Budget is not passed, since they would be
embarrassed by their victory. There follows from all
this an undoubted weakness for the country in the
present state of Europe, in which a strong Cabinet,
sure of its future, could scarcely suffice to meet the
difficulties that arise on every side. These difficulties
are scarcely understood by those who govern, and yet
o.4eir consequences might burst forth before there had
been time to give them careful attention. It is neces-
sary, therefore, at whatever cost that the French Par-
liament should get rid of this Budget debate, which
prolongs the present provisional state of things, and
which prevents all ripe, well considered, and energetic
policy. In the present situation nothing is more
perilous than to live by shifts from day to day, and
to run the chance of being surprised by events which
there was neither the time nor the capacity to ward
off.

On Sunday night the Berlin correspondent of the
Lally Chroniee telegraphed: The Governmental
Borsen Zcitung to-day comes round to the view of the
German Liberal Bonen Courier, and reproves the
recent more or less successful attempts to create a
general alarm in the commercial world. It says:
"The fall in public securities has been so considerable
of late, that it should cause Governmental ,:ircles to
reflect that a portion of the Press is possibly dealing
a little too freely in rumours of war and signals of
alarm."

We understand (said the Morning Post of Tues-
day) chat no special intelligence has 1-.. ached the
Foreign Office during the last few days to justify the
alarming statements made by a morning contempo-
rary yesterday. The gravity of the present political
situation has partly diminished so fnr as the Bul-
garian Question is concerned, and the immediate
danger of complications, no doubt, arises from the
relations between France and Germany. 8.0 far as the
Cabinets of Berlin and Paris are concerned, those rela-
tions remain to-day what they were six weeks ago, and
the assurances which M. Herbette continues to give
at Berlin are considered satisfactory. The danger
lies, as Prince Bismarck clearly stated recently, in
the instability of power in France, and the late
Min;tterial crisis in Paris, opportunely and wisely
averted, is only a fresh proof that Germany's anxie-
ties are fully justified. Until the elections for the
new Reichstag have been held it is not likely that
intelligence of a very reassuring character will come
from Berlin, or that any special anxiety will be felt to
contradict alarming reports from other European
capitals. But in the presence of a situation so grave
and so precarious, it behoves the organs of public
opinion in this and all other peace-loving countries to
abstain from publishing news which might cause
complications and make matters worse than they
really are.
GENERAL BOULANGER'S ATTI

The Paris correspondent of the Morning Post on
January 24th, wrote:—The most contradictory re-
ports are being circulated this evening with regard to
the attitude of General Boulanger at the last Cabinet
Counci;. The article in this morning's Intransigeant,
which clumsily advocates the cause of General
Boulanger against M. Jules Ferry, M. de Freycinet,
and his colleagues, is the subject of animated con-
versations in the ccnzloirs of the Palais Bourbon.
There was a rumour this morning that General Boulan-
ger was determined to make an important statement
in the Chamber this afternoon, and to tender
his resignation if the House showed any sign of ill-
feeling towards him. The agitation in the cordoirs of
the Palais Bourbon increased considerably after the
Mayas Agency had distributed the flying sheet con-
taining the text of an alarming and injudicious article
published by a London contemporary on the immi-
nence of war between Germany and France. Nobody
doubts the gravity of the situation, but no event has
occurred to justify the alarm raised. I have heard
but one remark in connection with this report in Go-
vernment, diplomatic, and financial circles—" The
English Liberal organ is apparently anxious to serve
Prince Bismarck's interests in his electioneering
campaign."

At Monday's sitting of the Prussian Diet Prince
Bismarck again spoke in favour of the German Army
Bill, and insisted upon the necessity of passing the
military budget for seven years. He denied that the
Government contemplated following up the demand
for a septennate by measures establishing monopolies.
He denied also that the Federal Governments had any
intention of suspending the electoral law.

The semi-official North German Gazette on Tuesday
evening stated that it was in a position to confirm the
declaration made by M. Goblet, the French Premier,
regarding the wholly unfounded character of the
alarmist statement published by a London morning
paper of the previous day. It added that the infor-
mation of the journal in question rested on a pure
invention, and said it was untrue that Germany has
decided to demand explanations from France con-
cerning the massing of French troops on the
frontier.

At a Cabinet Council held at Paris on Tuesday
morning a fresh contradiction was given to an alarm-
ing statement published by a London morning paper
concerning the relations between France and Germany.
It was declared that there was nothing to justify
similar reports, which were as incorrect from a
military as from a diplomatic point of view.
Tuesday morning's French newspapers unanimously
declare that Frnce desire the maintenance of peace,
and that England alone would have an interest in a
war in which she would not be directly engaged. The
Journal des Dcbats accuse the British Preq; of seeking,
under the present circumstances, to bring about war
between Frarce and Germany. The Ripubli9ue
Franc-wise remarked that if England would only
abandon her policy in regard to Bulgaria general
peace would be assured.

_
Writing on Tuesday night the Paris correspon-
dent of the Daily Chronicle said: Although it seems
generally understood that the panic of. yesterday was
an exaggerated one, yet it cannot be said that the
alarm has been fully allayed. Probably, for the first
time since 1875, all the terrible alternatives of war
have been brought home to the French mind, one of
these, and not the least important, being its imme-
diate consequences here in Paris, where the opinion
is almost universal that any declaration of war would
be followed by determined action on the part of
the revolutionary element. The assurances of
General Boulanger that he has no intention of
going beyond the duties of patriotism may be
acct,pted as substantially true. The fact re-
mans, however, that any overt threat coining
from Bismarck may break up the Goblet Cabinet, by
making the elimination of General Boulanger a
crucial question. What then will follow? Although
patrioti-ni may suggest to the Minister of War to
resign his portfolio, this cannot deprive him of that
aureole of unhealthy popularity which some are
malicious enough to accuse him of seeking. M.
Goblet himself, who received me to-day, professes to
have no fear of the Minister of War, seeing that
General Boulanger has done nothing beyond zealously
discharge the work of an office which of late has been


rather neglected. To sum up the situatkm, thersfore,
I may again state that war between Germany and
France is certainly not imminent, unless the game of
braggadocio, which is being played on both sides,
leads to some sudden change.