Omaha daily bee., 1897-04-10

political consequences. shutting out the
Transvaal and the orange Free State from
access to the sea except through harbors
controlled by England. Dom Paul and Presl-
dent steyn OF the Orange Free State may
Kick In unison like a pair Of long horned
African oxen ct this transaction, but they
are powerless to arrest 1t, unless they are
prepared to come forward and offer a larger
sum. But the Doer Is frugal In his politics,
as In other ways, and In his vision the dol
lar expands to the dimensions of a Cape
Colony cdrtwheel. Such a sum as Rhodes
Is reported to be willing to offer is as much
beyond their conception or computatiyc
powers as a swarm Of bees is beyond the
counting capacity of a Bushmam. They will
have to put up with the new arrangement II
1t is made. but after all II will be OF no dis
advantage to them so long as they behave
themselves.
King Georges close family connections
with many European courts impels some
speculations as to the help he may derive
from these personal sources. The list Of
his royal connections is indeed striking.
One sister is the mother Of the c2ar of Rus
sia, another is the princess of Wales and
his daughtcr-in-law Is a sister OF the Ger
man emperor. But the time is long since
past when family connections In royal cir
cles can affect much the politics of Europe.
The people are very jealous OF being ruled
through such influences and no sovereign
would dare TO yield 10 family pcrsuasions II
they were in the least opposed to the "in-
tercsts" of his country The mother Of tho
German emporer is the daughter of Queen
Victoria, but that seems to have not the
slightest effect upon the relations of Eng
land and Germany. Napoleon married
daughter of the Austrian emperor, but 1t
had no effect upon thd course of Austria in
the wars that followed. The politics of the
world have run far beyond the control or
the personal whims of royal families.
The proposal OF France Is to expend about
500 G000 900 year on new war ships for the
next eight years, which sum really falls be-
low the estimate OF the British admiralty OF
about $4,000, 600 for the present year. AS
to the ability Of England to turn out new
construction faster than other nations one
need only recall the number of works that
she has; or, better, to take the comparison
recently made that she can build and equip
100 war vessels while France builds thirty
six, Russia thiTty-one, the United States
twenty-eight and Germany eighteen. But
England does not depend solely upon the
products of her royal dock yards; if she did
her naval supremacy would be at end
This is shown by the record of 1926, for OF
the 1870 tons Of war ships nine private
firms turned out 36,515 tons. Only few
weeks ago France was on the eve OF order
ing war ships from England because her own
yards were fully engaged Perhaps she still
has this scheme in mind. All this suggests
this question: Is the arbitration sentiment
or the desire for war growing stronger?
A paper of Athens, discussing the finan-
cial questions arising from the mobilization
of the Greek forces, declares that the burden
of all the outlay falls upon the treasury, in
asmuch as the subscriptions which the gov
ernment has received from abroad are prac-
ticaliy of no account, amounting only to
300 900 drachmas-a sum which does not rep
resent the expenses Of single day. 1t then
goes OH to say that the whole cost is betrayed
ont of the savings which a provldent ad-
ministratton has long been laying by. No
details, however, are given with regard to
these economies, of which nobody seems to
have heard up to the present. The paper
adds that the greatest loss sustained by the
nation will be due to the removal OF so many
thousand persons from their daily occupa-
tons, the abandonment Of agriculture, the
interruption of commerce, and the complete
cessation of public and private business. The
great bulk of the subscriptions from abroad
have been sent to the king. 1t is reported
that many shopl1eepers in Athens are suf-
fering from sickness Of trade and that money
is becoming scarce. Most of them have con-
tributed free goods to the various societies
which have undertaken the care Of the
Cretan refugees and the families Of the re-
servists. Many of the latter were in ex-
treme want week ago.