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The Life and Times of Sir George Grey, K.C.B.

(Note J.—See pages 451, 452.) — America And England

(Note J.—See pages 451, 452.)
America And England.

The statement of Sir George Grey's opinion upon the claims of the United States to the leadership of the Anglo-Saxon peoples is too bald and emphatic. It is necessary both to modify and enlarge that opinion. The circumstances of the case of Samoa alluded to are peculiar, and yet illustrate the weakness of the position now held by England. Prince Bismarck bad determined to enter upon a system of German colonisation. In many places where he desired to plant colonies he found that he was brought into collision with British interests or with British settlements. He had without doubt determined to annex those islands of the Navigators Group page 489which pass by the name of Samoa, of which, between 1880 and 1887, Malietoa was the acknowledged King. Finding that the Australian colonies and New Zealand resented strongly his efforts to annex the Samoan Group, the Prince requested Sir Edward Mulet, the English Ambassador at Berlin, to convey to Lord Salisbury his (Bismarck's) resolve, if necessary, to treat with France in a manner which might be prejudicial to the interests of England if he wore not permitted to carry out his designs in regard to colonisation. Influenced by Continental interests, and more attentive to the chances of European complications than to the safety and the prosperity of Australasian commerce, Lord Salisbury's representatives permitted their hands to be tied by the threats of the German Chancellor. Had it not been for the resolute action of the American Consul at Apia, who, acting under the advice of one of the writers, placed the islands under the protection of the American Hag in the very presence of the German squadron, it is certain that Samoa would have been seized by Germany and incorporated in the German Empire. The cherished dream of Sir George Grey's life had been to exclude from the New World the policies, the rivalries, and the wars of the old. And he felt that the true welfare and greatness of England, and the safety of that freedom to which she had been a bulwark for generations, were more closely connected with the intimate relations existing between Britain and her great dependencies and the United States than in the balance of power upon the Continent. He was convinced that in the terrible wars which probably will yet devastate the Old World, England could not take an effective part. He was equally convinced that England had no right save in the interests of justice and of mercy to interfere at all. To his mind the hopes of the world rested upon the increasing numbers of English-speaking peoples scattered in free communities upon the earth, asserting the dominion of the sea, and offering to the citizens and subjects of all nations who might choose to join them those advantages which freedom and boundless territories bestowed. The cautious—even timid attitude of England in relation to Samoa drew forth the passionate scorn of the colonies of Australasia and the Western States of the great Republic Already in 1853 Sir G. Grey had warned the Imperial authorities on the occupation of page 490New Caledonia by the French. It was well known that in anticipation of war between England and other powers, plans had been prepared for the invasion of Australia and New Zealand. In the case of Samoa, it was not as if England were permitting Germany to occupy a desert and uninhabited territory; it deliberately sacrificed —under the stress of threats—a King and people with whom it was in solemn treaty to the tender mercies of Prince Bismarck. Beyond this, it was permitting a great nation to seize and fortify in the midst of the Southern Ocean a strong and fertile group of islands which directly command those great streams of commerce perpetually passing and repassing between Australasia and America, between America and China, Japan, and India; and which, without doubt, might easily dominate the commerce between Great Britain and her Australasian colonies. So vast were the interests involved, so wide the issues which depended upon this apparently trivial matter of the abandonment of Samoa to the Germans, that Sir George Grey feared England had taken a fatal step and dealt with her own hand a serious blow against her own supremacy. The inflexible resolution of all parties in the United States which prevented the annexation of Samoa by Germany filled him with delight, and convinced him that no questions of European politics, no outside entanglement with other nations, would prevent the United States from throwing its shield before the weakest community if the cause of human liberty and freedom could be thereby advanced. In his opinion, England and America should act conjointly. In all cases where it is distinctly in the interests of freedom and humanity, they should be guided by one spirit and work in unison for the same ends. So acting, the liberties of the world, as a whole, would receive a due consideration, and the Anglo-Saxon race would in all human probability be left to work out its own destiny in undisturbed peace. Thus, in relation to the New World he thought that America and England should unite to prevent the intrusion of the quarrels and wars of the Old, and so ensure a new and happier future for large portions of the human race. But if Great Britain allowed her Ministers to be interfered with by foreign powers, or guided by considerations possibly inimical to the interests of her widely-scattered children, then the hopes and trust of the young nations page 491of the future would be increasingly reposed in the judgment and sympathy of the United States.