| Show THE SITUATION CRITICAL abib week opens on an intensely critical situation in international affairs tae dinter of a great war appears nwe more imminent than at any time this mowry since the allied powers were called upon to face the great agn elbon the key bey to the toia 1610 the be bonds banda of great britain and may prevail and lead astion to pursue a conciliatory felcy awl toward the united states in ID of assuming a threatening attl atti we lode the flying squadron equa dron has baa not yet essid from portsmouth harbor and receive its if final orders un te s departure do from bantry banary buy which will not hot be until friday at klipst eit up to that time the brit jwill degoler De noler has haa opportunity to send end natal logo force to a quarter where its ita presence will not be re erde at a direct menace to a nation which britain should be the last to threaten threat eD but bat if the royal squadron equa dron is destined to the bermuda either for action against the united states or in up upon OD cuba in pursuance of an agreement with spain the serious nature of such a movement hardly can be overestimated it is ie scarcely to be conceived that lord salisbury and his bis astute nephew and political adviser arthur balfour really possess au an idea that by a great display of naval force they can Irit imil date the united states into acquiescence to english dicta on the monroe doctrine in the first place the past few weeks should have convinced that english public sentiment la in not demanding war with this nat iciD when the transvaal incident occurred it was quickly discovered that all britain could be arrayed against germany and the latter had bad t to D act with discretion but an anti and american campaign shows no such local support tor for th n simple reason that the british publio public see no justification for it what they want is closer commercial relations with the united states sod and not war in the second place if a war with this country were to be enthusiastically supported by the british people the united kingdom could not dot hope to come out of it with less damage than would accrue to the united states the loss lose to british commerce alone would exceed in value the greatest destruction which nae has been pointed out as possible to lu iu flicht en an this country aud and thirdly if britain does not want war with the united states any bulldozing 2 procedure of the british ministry would be the worst possible step for the present temper of this country as shown upon the presidents president a venezuelan message a already is too much too inclined lined to chock knock the chip off john bulls shoulder taking all the circumstances into we do not believe that england wants war and will find a way to surmount the present difficulties queen victoria while exercising only the powers of a limited monarch still hae sufficient influence to prevent b ler her people being plunged into such a disastrous in great britain beitat ministry and all would have to go down before the queens popularity riLy should she be appeal to the notion nation in ID this respect the way for this has baa been opened by permitting her to take an I 1 active part in the german affair were the queen to pass page away on an event not at all improbable things might be entirely dif different lerent but bat while she abe lives jives there la Is strong reason to believe that her ministry will be careful in its war policy where the united states Is 18 con corned the now new question involved is of for far more importance than the venezuelan boundary here is the situation of a revolution in cuba about to prove successful spain recognizing that her practical control of the island le Is about to pass away is said to have negotiated to transfer r it to britain in this transaction there is a virtual concession that spanish power in cuba is replaced by the re public there the situation demands recognition by the united states of belligerent rights fox for the cuban bevc the president a prod a inflation to that effect is anticipated any day it if britain accepts the spanish transfer she will be virtually in the position of attempting to conquer an american republic this the united stats baat s could not permit and here lies the danger of selecting the bermudas as a point of rendezvous for the flying t qi jadron solar so far as cuban affairs are concerned for the bermudas is an important base of british opera lions either against cuba or the united stater state being within amilea miles of our shores it may be seen that unless the supposed destination of the squadron is changed trouble wi will I 1 result but u before stated it way may not be bermudas at all ail hence no occasion for alarm we say BY we believe steps will be taren to evert avert or at least defer the trouble yet a 8 little while but we do not believe that it will be postponed for long the consensus of opinion on ancient prophetic utterances has pointed for more than a hundred years t to the end of the nineteenth century as a time for great national turmoil the correctness corre etness of this opinion has been confirmed by modern revelation toe the situation Is exceedingly critical whatever may be the particular course of event even tsa a stir atu international irruption is near at hand with great britain es one of the chief factors occurrences of a nature more stirring than any that have been observed recently are on the program of the now not far distant future |
