The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, January 10, 1891. THE FISHERIES DISPUTE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 555, 10 January 1891, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Saturday, January 10, 1891. THE FISHERIES DISPUTE.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’et at be thy country**. Thy God’s, and truth’s.

There has latterly been such a dearth of news of a warlike tendency that fireeating military correspondents and bellicose newspaper editors on the Continent must find a big gap in the ordinary occupation of their lives. They have so long magnified molehills into mounttuns and descanted on the perfidy of Russia in particular and the world in general, that when even the molehills have Crumbled away for a time they are at a loss to find material for sensations—which by the way had long ceased to become “ sensations” on account of the dreary monotony with which they filled the papers of the day. Now, however, a new light is dawning upon these scribes—America and England are going to have a big burst up which can only end by the Yankees making a dependency of England or the great Republic shattering itself to fragments in the struggle. There is a dispute over a paltry little fishery question, and these writers have found in it material for most gloomy forebodings, and they have not been backward in giving blood-curdling dramatic representations of the sword being drawn between England and America, to be followed by a general flare-up of all the Great Powers, the whole to be concluded by the screaming farce of the world being turned upside down by the victors. In all conscience the Behring Sea fishery dispute is serious enough, but those who think that Mr Blaine or Lord Salisbury are such raving lunatics as to precipitate a bloody struggle between two English-speaking peoples over what in itself is such a small matter, must be pitiable persons indeed. It is the alarmists’ trade to get up sensations, but this latest “ sensation ’’ is so utterly ridiculous that even the prescient alarmist ought to feel ashamed at his weakness in not being able to throw out a better bait. History is quoted to prove that it is possible for England to be at war with the States, but there is no stronger argument that such a thing will never occur again. Mr Blaine is a bit of a blusterer, and will get all the concessions he can for his country, but he is no fool, and if it came to the point he would have the sense to avoid a conflict. If he and Lord Salisbury weregyearning .to grasp each Others

throats, the people of England and of the States might let them have it out, but they would both be shuffled from this vale of tears ere the two nations went to war with each other. The whole question is simple enough : where the trouble arises is that each side wants to get the best of a bargain, and either side will try to gain its point, but the talk about a sanguinary conflict is all so much froth. The later telegrams prove this. If the people of England and of the United States were of such a bellicose disposition as some writers paint them, there would be too much wealth jeopardised to allow of a conflict. Americans have big investments in England, and Englishmen are more deeply interested in American speculations, so that if those who are supposed to be thirsting for blood come too close to each other, the capitalists would soon bring things back to their proper bearings. There will probably be a little more bluster and finessing over the Behring fishery question, but there is not the slightest cause for apprehension as to the outcome.