New-York tribune., 1900-03-19
AFTER THE WAR.

After the war, what then? Beyond doubt
there will be great changes in South Africa
The dream of Cape Town will be realized in
''one land from Lions Head TO Line" A race
that has been stagnant will be yitalized with
new life, land that has been wasted will be
utilized for humanity and what were four or
five separate and sometimes jarring States will
be united into one great and strong dominion
Yet il is probable that elsewhere the changes
wrought will be still greater. and of greater i'm
pert TO the world. They will not be so much
in maps and names but in knowledge and spirit
and purpOse-the factors which make and un-
make maps ar will
For one thing Great Britain will have found
herself" She has long needed so TO do. For
many year she has permitted herself to
wink in slothful overtrust' and let
her ''cannons mOulder on the seaward wall"
This war has reused her TO the need OF military
reorganization and re-equipment, and has at the
same time revealed 10 her her potency in that
direction, if she but will. We may be sure that
she will. Not again In our time will an
English army find itself less we'll equipped than
its opponents Not again will the English army
require TO be hurriedly recruited from among
the undried ranks OF peace. Conscription will
not he needed But without 1t the worlds great
fighting race will keep itself in fighting trim
And this. too, other Powers will realize Great
Britain will no longer be lightly held a negll-
gible quantity ia wars by land. She has long
ranked as the foremost naval Power. Hence
forth she will rank among the great army
Powers as well. The nation that can send more
than two hundred thousand men to a war seven
thousand miles over sea, without conscription
and without percepuble draft upon her popu-
lous resources, and they men who in a strange
land and trying climate excite the wonder and
admiration of even their foes by their yalor
and their endurance-the nation that can do
that is an important military Power. on land as
well as sea. That fact the Continental Powers
Will henceforth recognize, and there will be less
talk Of "sacking the modern Carthage"
There will, again be striking change in the
relationship between the mother country and
the colonies. We shall scarcely hear again a
Conservative statesman of Benjamin Disraeli's
rank lauenting that "those wretched colonies
are only "a milestone round England's neck"
we doubt If Mr.. Morley or any other Radical Of
serious standing will again predict that when
England becomes involved in a serious war her
c c,lonies will refuse sympathy. money and men.
Nor will the example Of Archibald Forbes be
ernulated In expressing "the implicit conviction
that if England should ever be engaged in a
~scriOus struggle one OF the outcomes
would be 10 detach from her the Australian
colonies" The French Prime Minister of Can
IA and the Socialist Prime Minister of New
Zealand nave changed all that With n ven
geance. The work Of years for imperial fedora
lion has been done in the last six months. The
bonds that unite the members Of the empire
have been strengthened immeasurably. And the
Power that would now strike Great Britain
n,l7st strike not only the worlds greatest feet.
-sd not only a mighty army Of DevOns and