The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-19

surface IN the continental policy. On all
sldes old alliances seem to be melting
away, possibilities of new and strange
combinations are rising out of food. and
literally no one knows what the morrow
may bring forth, but England has no En-
bassador at st. Petersburg, and does not
intend sending one till March, which lends
color to the suspicion that the Car and
the Kaiser have established q partnership
which 1t is useless to try to upset.
Cecil Rhodes is actually at sea racing
homeward to begin The fight for the char
tered company before Parliament meets.
English attention will DE speedily concen-
trated on the domestic aspect OF this great
upheaval. AS matters stand to-day II is
thought probable that majority could be
found in the House of Commons for re-
voking the charter altogether. What the
feeling will be a month hence it is difficult
to say. Thus far these queer people have
been eble to keep quite distinct their VEN
Grafton for Jameson and their enthusiasm
for Chamberlain. These two emotions,
fatty contradicting each other, have ex-
listed, so to speak, in the water-tlght com
partments side by side, but when Rhodes
appears on the scene it is obvious that he
cannot be a National hero unless Cham ber-
lain worshipIis to be abandoned. The latter
was evidently within bounds the other day
when he warned a cheering Birm ingham
crowd that his work was by no means
ended yet.
His fight with Rhodes and the whole
tremendous social and financial South
African combination behind him will
strain him to the very utmost. If he
emerges victorious he will be indeed a
great man.
The story that the real destination of the
new special-service squadron is to be Ber.
muda seems to have originated in the
gossip of the naval clubs, and though l
can learn nothing definite l am told by
official friends that it will be pretty safe to
discredit it. Public opinion here would
regard the discovery that such a step had
been ordered as nothing short cf a ma
tional calamity. The speeches of Balfour
and Ridley have been gladly accepted as
official assurances from this side, as Olney' S
action in placing the Americans in the
Transvaal under British protection seems
to be from the other, that an amicable
settlement is no longer doubtful. To be
compelled to revise this opinion would
make everybody angry.
If Lord Salisbury can abandon the whole
valuable Mekong Valley and actually
withdraw British garrisons from it to
please France he surely cannot ask Parlia-
ment or the country to support him in a
quarrel with America about an infinitely
smaller matter in which not even effectual
possession can be proved. But where the
flying squadron Is to go when the admiral
gets his sealed orders at Beechaven re-
mains an entire mystery. 1t would serve
no purpose to retail ne various specula-
tions, for they are all equally guesswork.
The whole world war outlook is so curious
" involved and unsettled that ii is hard
telling which one of dozen points these
ships are liable to be needed most at when
spring opens. The opinions to which
am disposed 10 attach the most Importance
look for them TO turn up in Chinese
waters but these may be quite wrong.
Six weeks ago, of course, such an ex-
pectation would have been referred by
everybody to the Levantine troubles now
the impression that England has drawn
neck and crop out of that particular i'm
brOglio is SO general that nobody thinks of
suggesting that this squadron may be for
OSC Nl4N4C- LIS -oSlOil Is greatly
strengthened by the withdrawal of the
British Mediterranean feet from Salonica
One division is coming back to Malta, the
other is going down for police duty in the
vicinity OF the Aleppo. But it is well to
remember that John Bull is not incapable
on occasion of a certain amount of guile,
and it may easily be that his ostensible
abandonment of the Armenians to their
fate is designed to throw others off their
guard while he prepares to interfere more
vigorously than ever.
The celebration of the twenty-fifth ami
versary of the foundation of the German
empire to-day was purely an affair of
princes and generals. The public has
been offered no part in it, no newspaper
men have been admitted to witness any
phase to the court festivities, and even the
ordinary stand for spectators, always here
tofore permitted in front of the opera
house, to witness the review of troops, was
to-day forbidden. Nothing could better
illustrate the despotism that the imperial
government has made during the past
year or the width OF the gulf now sepa-
rating it from popular sympathy and in
terest. 1t is true that large number of
victims of the recent Oriental enforcement
Of the Iese majestic laws have received i'm
perlal clemency in an effort to get the peo-
pie to think that they are associated with
the anniversary, but the act has been
COldly received.
The fact that the Socialist organ, the
VOrwaerts, when able yesterday to print
the decree which the Kaiser was religiously
saving up as to-day's surprise is by far the
most significant OF long series OF proofs
that the administration is filled with men
who secretly sympath ize with the Social
Democrats and are willing to run terrible
risks to provide them with the most conf
Dental secrets of the var1ois ministers.
1t used to be suspected that the printers
dld this and thorough precautions were
taken to render that impossible, but the
menaclng leak goes on just the same.
1t IS not unlikely that the Authors Soci-
ETY. Will go to pieces in the course of the
furious impending fight over the celebrated
address TO American brethren. One gath.
ers IN the papers that Hall Caine wrote it.
and Besant and Conway approved; but it
seems that the committee or council of the