The record-union., 1897-08-04

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man producer; that, too, in thor
oughly disinterested manner, without
looking for any other reward than
promotion, or, perhaps, decoration
from the Emperor. 1t is thanks to
them that German trade has developed
/ to such a neXtent that il has now be-
come the principal competitor of that
of Great Britain all the world over,
busting the English from many Of the
markets Indeed, German trade would
probably be victorious all along the
line We're the quality of the produce
and manufacture offered equal to that
Of the British article or more worthy
of the exertion made in its behalf by
the Woodworking, energetic Teuton
consuls.
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN con-
SULS.
The English Consular Service pre-
sents a good deal of analogy to that
of the United States, with this differ
ence: that, whereas American consuls
hold their office merely for term OF
four years, and are then sent about
their business, just when they have be-
gun to get acquainted with their du-
| ties, their English colleague retains his
position until he is retired on pension
| on the ground of old age or infirmity
| But the method of selection is much
the same in both instances. Men are
! pitchforked into the service without
any regard to their fitness. Here con-
| sulships are regarded by the Govern
ment as a means for the payment or
petty liabilities contracted during the
| course of a presidential campaign,
whereas on yonder side of the Atlantic
! consulships are distributed in a still
more haphazard fashion. In many in
/ stances they are conferred upon men
whose absence from home is preferred
| to their presence In former times, in
the day when Thackeray wrote of
| Becky Sharp and of the manner in
which she induced Lord Steyne to get
an antipodean governorship for her
husband. Colonel RawdOn Crawley, CO.
| lonial offices We're available for this
purpose But Great Britain's depend
| encies beyond the sea have long since
put a stop to the transactions OF TINS
kind declining to be saddled with pee
pie who, for one reason or another,
were not wanted at home, and the con-
! sequence is that the Consular Service
| is now the only means left of pension
| ing off claimants and dependents OF
both sexes, of providing means of live
! lihood for stewards upper servants
and their sons, for getting rid OF con-
venient witnesses in perplexing law
suits, and for keeping away from home
| poor or ruined relations.
This does not mean that all of her
majesty's consuls are of the class in
Dictated There have been some illus
trious names among them, such as, for
instance, those of Hay, Richard Bur-
| ton, RaWlinson, Lever and Sandwith,
etc But the appointment of CONSUL
ships is conducted by Great Britain in
identically the same happy, go-lucky
way as in this country, without the
/ slightest regard to their fitness for the
| important duties which they ought to
| fulfil Indeed one would almost be
| tempted to imagine that the Govern
ments of neither England nor the
United States cared anything for the
trade and industry of their respective
countries. Thus, the British Foreign
Office, instead Of selecting men who
have some knowledge of commerce for
variably appoints army officers, whose
duty in the eyes of their Government
consists, not in promoting trade or in
! opening UP new markets to British
manufactures, but in securing military
/ information regarding the ornaments
| and defences of the Muscoyfte Empire,
which are destined to supplement the
data supplied to the War Department in
London by the military attache of the
! Embassy at st. Petersburg. Yet Rus
STA, especially since the beginning of the
present reign, has become a magnifi
cent and as yet relatively undeveloped
field for foreign commerce and indus
trial enterprises of every kind.
Useless as are cOnsuls of this sort to
the mercantile interests of Great Brit
ain, they are in every respect superior
to the class of men that England en-
ploys for her consular service in the
Levant. These are not even native
born English, and, for instance, Alfred
Biliotti, the consul in Crete, to whom
no small blame for the present condi-
| ton of affairs in the island may be as
cribed, is of Oriental parentage, was
| born at Makri in Asia Minor, and has
spent his entire existence in the East,
seldom coming to England, save on
short visits. Biliotti is in every sense
Of the word a Levantine, and possessed
of all the defects and shortcomings Of
that nondescript race. At one moment
every consular post on the line of COM
munication between Malta and Trebi
zond, extending again through Ere
roum to Tabreez and Teheran, were
! held by Levantines, most of them re-
lated to one another, who had begun
their careers as upper servants, inter
prefers and consular clerks. Thus, at
the English consulate in Crete, there
is not a single native-born Englishman
in the whole personnel at the present
moment. Not only is the consul him
self a Levantine, but the vice-consul is
a Spanish Jew, and the remainder of
the staff is composed of a perfect mo-
sale of nationalities. People such as
these have neither the notions nor the
principles of English citizens. They
look upon affairs in an altogether diff
ferent light, and having hosts of rela
tives who owe allegiance to other Gov
ernments than that of England, they
are naturally often influenced by per-
sonal considerations to pusue a line of
conduct that is distinctly disadvanta-
geous to the political and commercial
interests of Great Britain.
HOW DRAGOMEN RISE IN THE
LEVANT.
Columns of the most extraordinary
stories could be written about these
Levantine Consuls of England and of