DIPLOMACY.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, 25 October 1880, Page 2

DIPLOMACY.

Diplomacy may be de6ed as the art of ■naking people believe \ hat their advan< tage is best studied by compliance with your wishes. " Short's your friend, not Codlin," is per'iaps as epi^ramrna'ic a formula of a diplomatist's mission as any that can be given. Tbe art is one re* quiriog a long apprenticeship, and. preseniing an example of bow skilfully honorable men may follow tortuous tracks without loss of (lie world's es'eem, affords a curious study. But, if theavt is curious in Europe, in the South Sea Islands it is a regular rum'itn. Rum, in diplomatic triumphs in tliese latJer regions dial the various phases of a S.S. political move* ment may be spoken, of as its rurnifications. Germany has just been eiideavoring to establish a protectorate orer the island of Raiatoa, and the man*of-war Bismirck went there for the purpose o' hoisting the German flig. The Government of the island is moDiTchial, the authority of tbe king being tampered br the opinion of the chiefs and qualified be the potency of the particular tipple that may be soing at the time. Tbe natives oljrcted to s> German protectorate, so the captain of the Bismarck very properly approached the Opposition with the same tycties that certain Government sup* porters in this colony were arcnsed of employing on important occasions las' session. Our ministerial however applied their prescription to the tail of (he P.nty, whereas (lie Gernrin diplomatist went straight for the head. He got the I; ing on board and made him drunk. When his majciy had reached the right stage, which mani f eslctl by his hiccupping out that he wns an orphan and that his royal brother the Empew William ami Hismnrek were the only fellows who wou'dn't jump on a man because he was black and had not those soft parts of speei'h which rhamberers haye — a document was produced his signature to whic*> was to be the text of e'erml good fellowship between Jrmself, William, and Bismarck. His Mnj-sty of course eagerly ! signed if, and was proceeding to explain : that this was no ornery oecashn but in fact the prows(«o'*slife, when be sank under the emotion awakened by this tremendous constitutional change effected in bis dominions by a stroke of the pen. Mean'ime the skipper sent the German flag ashore, had it duly hoisted on a pole and sainted it with twenty«cne guns But hfi bad ir.ade the mistake of entirely neglecting to conciliate tbe aristocracy, who had the mortification of standing dead sober on the beach while the sovers eign conducted single-handed a negotiation that so powerfully invited their assistance. If German protection was such a onesboTse business as this, and the empire could only stand enough lignor to fuddie the king, they would prefer to place themselves under some more hospital Power ; so one of the chiefs forth' with took an axe and cut down the newly, erected flagstaff. And now, the natives

bavin? applied fo be ialcn under the pro.'ectorate of France, this island is lost for ever to Germany, (lie ting even having 'urned against hi? wliH.-i n friends on the groond that he las bad a headache over since the ceremony o« board Ibe the B» iniarck and believes the liquor was bad.