The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-12-19
A Pleasing Fiction Exploded.

ny ulle buSllS0 ana some Amefl-
can papers and magazines, that
the Government and people of
this country were under great
obligations to the English govern
ment for preventing coalition of
European powers against the
United States and in favor of
Spain at the outbreak of the
Spanish war. The British gov
ernment, so the story goes, was
sounded unoflicially by the rep
resentative Of one of the Euro
pean powers interested in the
scheme as to what its attitude
would be in the event that press
ure was brought to bear upon the
United States. Great Britain s
reply, we are told, was a prompt
and unconditional refusal to take
part in the movement, coupled
with an intimation that if the
United States were attacked by
the European coalition Great
Britain would make common
cause with America. This has
been proclaimed as the solemn
truth on both sides of the Allan
tic, and as constituting a strong
claim on our gratitude to the
mother country" Many Amer
leans have come to believe that
but for the alleged action of the
British government, France, Ger
many, Russia Italy and Austria
would have sided with Spain, and
we would have had to face the
wrath of all Europe when we went
to war on behalf of civilization
and humanity, to free Cuba from
Spanish wrong, cruelty and OPP
preston.
1t is interesting to know that
American salvation and safety
through England is a pleasant bit
of fiction. A Paris dispatch to
the New York Tribune" sets
forth the facts, on the authority
of NJ. HanotauX, who was the
French minister of foreign affairs
during the Spanish-American
war. He denies that the attitude
of the British government had
any bearing upon the collapse of
the alleged European coalition in
the interest of Spain. 'It seems
to me impossible" writes M.
Hanotaux, "that public opinion
IN the United States should not
now be quite as well aware of the
real facts in this matter as is the
United States department of
state" What are the real facts?
M. Hanotaux states that the al
legged European demonstration
against the United States was
rendered impossible not by Great
Britain, but by Russia. Count
Murabieff, then Russian minister
of foreign affairs" explains the
French statesman, "communicat-
ed to the Spanish ambassador at
st. Petersburg the absolute and
formal refusal of Russia to mix
herself in any way with quarrel
which did not concern Russian
interests" This communication
"couched in the most emphatic,
almost brutal, language, as M.
HanotauX characterizes it, made
a European coalition against the
United States impossible.
The Russian minister to the
United States during the Span
ish-American war fatty denied
that there had been any European
coalition, that Russia had ever
assented to such a policy, and
that Great Britain did not pre-
vent it because it did not exist
The American belief in the
great service supposed to have
been rendered this country by
Great Britain has had a great
deal to do with the Indifference
which this Government has dis
played to the extinction of the
Boer republics. 1t was encour.
aged by the claims of the British
press that England stood ready
to stand by US to the fighting
point, against all Europe. 1t will
be interesting to see the response
England will make to the chal-
lenge of a responsible French
statesman. If there was anV