The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-02-05 00:00:00

THE WAR FEVER IN EUROPE:

Some important Councils have been held in Vienna,
says tba Standard correspondent, between the
Emperor and his Austrian and Hungarian Ministers.
The Earopean situation is regarded there as being still
most critical.
From Paris it is stated that M. Flourens has
addressed an important despatch to M. Herbette at
Berlin. After referring to the intelligence trans-
mitted by the French Ambassador with regard to the
pacific declarations made to him by the Emperor
William at the last cor cort at the Schloss, the Minister
for Foreign Affairs urges M. Herbette to lose no oppor-
tunity of impressing on the Court and the Govern-
ment at Berlin the fact that the French nation is
earnestly desirous to live on friendly terms with
Germany, and that the most perfect harmony exists
among the different Ministers on the advisability of
avoiding any act which under the present circum-
stances might be liable to misinterpretation.
A despatch couched in equally pacific and reassur-
ing terms as been addressed to the French Ambas-
sador to the Court of Italy.
The news that 70,000 troops of the reserve had
been called out in Germany produced considerable
impression on the Bourse, which has become particu-
larly impressionable. The Temps says: "The sum-
mons of these 70,000 men is explained, it appears, by
the necessity for instruction in connection with the
new repeating rifle. The Emperor, in communicating
this new levy of men, added that the measure had no
warlike character."
The Paris remarks that in fact this measure has no
great importance. The National speaks in the same
sense.

A Berlin correspondent writes: I was present at
the Schloss when M. Herbette, conversing with a
colleague, said: "I am bound to believe the Chan-
cellor's statement—i.e., that Germany will never
make war upon France. I know, likewise, that
France has no intention of going to war with Ger-
many. I therefore entertain no apprehension with
regard to the mutual relations of the two countries,
which are most satisfactory."
The National Zeitung replying to the remarks of
the French press on the construction of huts on the
German frontier, says, " It is only a question, so
far, of preparation for the concentration of troops,
but what takes place now in France is insufficient,
if serious, and too much if only a play. We recog-
nise the French of 1870 in their mysterious mode
of procedure and from the tone of their newspapers,
and therefore we take precautions on German
soil. It would have been very easy to commission,
timber from Hungary by Arlberg instead of order-
ing it from Alsace. From what we learn barracks
will also be erected for the commissariat departments.
We do not mention the hypothesis of these barracks
and buts being occupied, and the possibility of the
two armies facing each other as in time of war; but
there is no doubt that the French press, which
preaches peace, should commence by addressing its
remonstrances to the commissariat department advis-
ing it not to proceed further in a path which can only
have a fatal issue."

The resolution to call out part of the reserves
Phould not be interpreted as an alarming symptom of
the situation. It had already been made known by
the Mayence correspondent of the Cologne Gazette,
who stated that a certain number of young men in
that city who had not been included among the re-
cruits of last autumn and had been clamed in the
recruiting reserve, had been summoned to join their
reßiments in Anril next.

I had last night (says a correspondent of the Morn-
ing Post, dating from Vienna, Feb. let) a most in-
teresting conversation with a leading statesman of
this empire. I transmit his statement with regard
to the policy of England, because I have reason for
believing that his views are shared in the highest
quarters. After contradicting the statement that a pro-
posal for an Anglo-Austrian alliance had been made,
my interlocutor remarked," No doubt there is a strong
party in England which looks upon the present
critical situation of Europe from a purely insular
point of view, and proclaims that if two, three, or,
indeed, all the continental Powers of Europe, large
and small, choose to fight each other, this is no con-
cern of Great Britain; so long as England keeps
aloof from these European squabbles, she has nothing
to fear; a war of colossal magnitude may cause her
trade and commerce to suffer considerably, but she
will easily recover all this. Now, I believe lam not
stating merely my personal idea when I say that
should a war break out it will be absolutely im-
possible for Great Britain to keep aloof from it
altogether. Let us, in the first place, suppose
that she did so. Let us imagine the whole of
Europe engaged in a terrific conflict. Let us
imagine huge battles being fought on the Vosges,
on the Alps, on the Balkans; and while the whole
of the Continent was in a blaze the powerful fleets
of the different nations would certainly not lie idle in
their respective harbours. It may be presumed that
'while every port in Europe was threatened with bom-
bardment, monster ironclads and torpedo boats would
be engaged in sight of Gibraltar or Malta, of Cyprus,
or even in far more distant parts of the world, in
deadly conflicts. One shudders at the simple thought
of the consequences of so gigantic a struggle. Yet
whetler the Germans encamped around the Arc
de PEteile, or the French in the Unter den Lin-
den, or the Russians succeeded in planting their
flag on the cupola of Santa Sofia, or the Austrians
bivouacked in the square of St. Petersburg,
the day must come in which a congress of the Powers
would be summoned to sanction the conditions which
the victors would dictate to the vanquished. Now, I
ask you what would be the first result of the absolute
non-intervention of England in so colossal a fight?
The first result would be this, that both conquerors
and conquered would agree in declaring that Great
Britain had forfeited all right to sit in council with
the other Great Powers of Europe: of this you may
rest assured. And the next would be that no single
Power would take the trouble to provide for ,the
protection of British interests. But, as I repeat,
should a war of such colossal magnitude as the
one now threatened break out, England would
sooner or latter, fit d it impossible to keep out of it.
She would have to begin by evacuating her positions
in the Mediterranean, since her position as a Mediter-
ranean Power imposes upon her duties clearly-deter-
mined. No doubt this is so well understood in
London that no efforts are spared to bring about
a peaceful solution of the questions now engaging
the attention of the differait Cabinets. But, the best
means of preserving the peace is to exhibit unhesi-
tating readiness to a3t in concert with the other
Powers, which are equally anxious to spare us the
horrors of the most gigantic conflict which the world
ever witnessed."