The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-08-29
Who VIII Be the Next British Minister
of Foreign Affairs 2.

Unionl6t opinions nave expressed dlSap'
proval Of the recent management Of Eng.
lish foreign relations by Lord SALISBURY,
and especially Of his irresolute treatment
Of the Chinese question. We need not say
that the Premier finds no defenders among
the organs Of the Liberal opposition. His
attitude is contrasted, to his discredit,
with that Of Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN, the Sec
Rotary for the Colonies, and it is as.
serted OF authority which usually has
been found trustworthy that for the back
bone evinced by the Foreign Secretary In a
single instance, to wit, the Niger controver-
BY, he was indebted to the bracing effect
produced by Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN's threat
to resign his Office II efficient meas
ures were not taken forthwith to
stop French encroachments on the
British sphere Of influence in West Africa.
In view Of the fluctuations Of E%ngland's
Chinese policy during the last few months,
not only Radicals like Sir CHARLES dixie,
but very many Conservatives, seem in
clined to admit the justice of BIsMARoK's
description of Lord SALISBURY as "a lath
painted to look like IRON"
The growing dissatisfaction within the
ranks of his own party lends support to the
IcCuIItuU IunOE JIldU III uO ulSGdlG uuy LOEu
SALISBURY may resign, not the Premiership,
but the Foreign Office, the excessive cares
and anxieties Of which can Ill be borne by a
man whose health leaves much to be desired.
At all events, the choice OF his successor
is already the subject of discussion, and it
Is, obviously, one Of interest to Americans
at the present time. In some quarters, 1t Is
taken for granted that Mr.. A. j. BALFoUR
will succeed his uncle, and the fact is re-
called that he, on several occasions during
Lord ~SAL1sBURY's absence in the south of
France, has been left in charge OF England's
foreign affairs. Such was the position that
he occupied just before the outbreak OF
our present wal, when the French Foreign
Office sounded the principal European Gov
ernments with q view Of effecting a con-
certed interposition in behalf OF Spain, and
we are indebted to Mr.. BALFoUR for the re-
versal Of England's previous attitude with
regard to Cuba, and the consequent miscar-
riage of the French Vaccinations. Mr..
BALFoUR's liking for the United States
undoubtedly had much to do with the
British Governments unwillingness to rem
der a wal with this country inevitable by
refusing to submit the Venezuela boundary
NbCIupo ~ IA 1bd "do OlIc ROOu
turn, and, as we just mentioned, he did us
another, five months ago. in our hour Of
need. We should, therefore, have reason
to view with lively satisfaction the assump-
ton by Mr.. BALFoUR Of permanent control
over England's foreign relations, which
may exercise a potent influence upon our
own national interests In the Far East.
Mr.. B%ALFoUR, however, Is not the only
member Of Lord SALIsBURY's Cabinet who
Is a warm friend Of America, and who
earnestly desires to bring about a cordial
understanding between England and this
country. There are a great many English
men, belonging to different political par
ties, who see in Mr.. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN
an ideal Foreign Minister, and one
Of these has lately advocated his Sc
lection in the Fortnightly ReUieD. This
particular writer seems to have dis
cerned better than most people the distinc-
tive quality Of Mr.. ~CHAMBERLAIN's impe-
rialism, which is economic rather than lin
goistic. 1t is to practical, not sentimental,
ends that he has shaped his colonial policy,
andi 1t is to these, in his avowed opinion, that
he would have the foreign policy of England
shaped. Formerly, Radicals were Little Eng
landers, but Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN is an impe-
rialist and an expansionist just because he is
a Radical, that is to say, a champion OF the
working people, determined to employ all
the resources Of the empire to keep them in
profitable employment. He has asserted
repeatedly that colonial policy Isl question
of the unemployed, and it is from this
point OF view that he meets every colonial
problem, whether it relates to South
Africa, or to West Africa, or to Uganda,
or to the British West Indies. The
empire requires, he has said, an improve
ment scheme, such as he devised for Bir-
mingham, by which the credit of the State
may be applied to enable poor colonies to
do what they could not do unaided. Why?
Because the equipment OF the colonies with
public works, and their resultant prosperity,
would not only bring returns to tho invest
ing mother country In cheap raw material,
but would stimulate the demand for British
manufactures, and thus lessen the crowd OF
the unemployed in the United Kingdom.
His advocacy OF the closer union Of the en-
pire has the same basis A united Britain
would increase it's industrial power, as
union has that Of Germany, and the work
ing population would reap the advantage.
This, manifestly, Is not jingoism OF the
Tory type. 1t Is simply the Radicalism OF
MI. C~HAMBERLAIN's earlier days transferred
to a wider stage. That he should apply
the same principles to foreign policy was
inevitable, because. although England's
trade with her colonies is large, it is small in
comparison with her trade in the free mar
kets outside the limits OF her empire. Hence
1t is obviously vital to her not only that
the latter markets should not be closed, but
that, by annexation or otherwise, fresh ones
be found. The expansion question,
in other words, is, like the colonial ques-
ton, ~lnseparably connected, from Mr..
point of view. with the
of the unemployed. "Give me the
demand for more goods" he has said, "and
| will undertake to give plenty of employ
ment in making the goods" For this pur-
pose not municipal workshops or similar
socialistic nostrums, but increased foreign