The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-12-04
EUROPE WAS BLUFFED
AND A COALITION AGAINST AMERICA
PREVENTED.
Interesting Disclosure by Diplomat as Re-
ported by William T. Stead. New Light on
The War.


The War.
Correspondent of the Associated Press.)
London November 24.-William Il.
Stead. writing from Rome under date of
November Dist says:
I'm the course of my tour | am now
compelled 10 admit l found proof of the
existence of disposition on the part
of the powers to intervene on behalf of
Spain which might have been very Sc
rious had it not been checked in the bud
by the knowledge that England would
have nothing to do with It. When / was
i'll Paris | was positively told that no
proposal had ever been made to inter
vene and that therefore England had
never had the occasion or opportunity
to put her foot down on the anti-Ameri-
can coalition. That no doubt was true
as far as over action on the pat of the
Government was concerned. But it IS
not less true that Immediately after the
war broke out Il diplomatic representa-
tive of the powers communicated to an
European court i'll plain and unmistable
terms the displeasure of the powers
and their desire to express that displeas
IRE publicly and focibly These commits
sions were sufficiently serious for contin-
gency of the use of the allied forces
of the European nations for the Co
ercion of the United States to be frankly
discussed between the two diplomatists.
The result of that discussion was to
put a summary stop to all motion of Eu-
ropean intervention.
If you intervene. said the American
Minister, it means war.
Yes" reioined his visitor, and the
forces of the great European powers
acting in alliance would overwhelm any
opposition which America could Offer
No Doubt said the American, but
YOU would have to bring your forces
across the Atlantic to the other hemis-
phere and keep them there for the rest
of your natural ife. For the New
World is not going TO submit TO the Old
World any more. No. sir. not any more
than it submitted century since, when
the odds were far worse.
And, remember he added, as
clincher. that when you were bringing
your armies and your nayies across 5000
miles of sea to fight America. you would
have to count with England who is
certainly not friendly to your enter
prise
This put an eNtinguisher on the pro-
posal. Nothing more was heard of the
contemplated intervention. 1t never
got so far as to be submitted to Eng
land. The whole design was checked
at the very outset by the calm audacity
with which the representative of Amer
lea played his cards, including the trump
card of the Anglo-American entente
which henceforth will play lSding
part i'll all the dealings of the English
speaking people with their jealous and
suspicious neighbors
Il am very glad to be able TO set forth
the actual facts as they actually hap
pened They were told me at first hand
by the person most Immediately con-
cerned and you can absolutely rely upon
the accuracy Of the above statement.
IF the Old World regards American
growth and expansion with unconcealed
alarm. the British empire, which is seal
cd both on the Old and the New, con-
templates the new departure with unaf-
fected sympathy. The relations between
the Embassies of Britain and America
at Constantinople and at Rome could
hardly be closer and more cordial if
there had been hard and fast cut
and dried. signed. sealed and delivered
treaty Of alliance, offensive and defen-
sive between the two powers.
If thing go on as they are now. every
English-speaking man viii feel as |
have felt throughout this war. that he
has not one Ambassador but two in
every capital in Europe and that be-
hind him wherever he goes, he is
shielded by the might, not of one empire,
but of two, combination beneath
whose shadow the whole world may yet
learn to rest in peace"