A STRANGE LETTER.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1562, 17 June 1885, Page 2

A STRANGE LETTER.

w In the face of the wild eagernest to join in our struggle in the Soudan with which the Australias have been credited, the following communication from the current, issue of • Troth' reads somewhat strangejy. The writer is a New Sontli Welshman just arrived in London. He says : — "As one who has lived many years in Australia, may I be permitted to inform the British public of the true state of feeling among the majority of native Australians in respect to the Soudan War and themselves? The Stuart-DaJley Ministry of New South Wales sent the troops from thence at their own instigation, and not at that of the people. I need not, sir, refer to the groA, inaccurate, and imaginative messages of Reuter, the only authority we have of Australian affairs to this country ; hut I venture to say that the report I that the New South Wales troops embarked amid enthusiasm was a fa sehood. It was proposed last September or October in Australia to send troops U> the Soudan, and, as L was in that country, I can positively state that nineteenths of the people were against it. Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia will never send any troops — that I can for certain predict ; and the division in the House of Assembly at Sydney on the question of that Government sending troops shows that a strong feeling exists even in that Chamber — composed of squatters and other wealthy men, who care not a jot for the country — against disturbing the peace of the colonies. Twenty-four members virtually voted for the recall of the troops ; and we may safely estimate that as many more would have voted against the expedition if it had not involved New South Wales in the ridiculous attitude of vacillation, which would certainly have been rather infra dig. Let me state, sir, on behalf of nine-tenths of the Australian people — I do not count sham Australians, most of them born in this country, and therefore having their sympathies with Old World animosities — that they do not approve of their Ministers oflering help in the shameless Soudan War. We are a peaceful people ; our country is the only one on the earth never yet cursed by war, and we wish to live in peace with all races, not excepting Central Africans. The Soudan trouble is nothing to vs — it is an English affair, not an Australian concern. Men holding power in the Australias are mostly English; but sir, wait until the native-born secures the upper hand, and the English people will find that Australians will not help and connive at wicked wars carried on by tbe old nations of Europe, who are never lmppy except they are carrying bloodshed and ruin into distant countries." I have heard Mr Archibald, Of the • Sydney Bulletin,' enunciate sentiments very similiar to the abov*. The whole idea of sending troops, etc., i originated, life avers* in the scheming | 'u-ain of a Sydney statesman, very ' anxious to secure his K.C.M.G. There I was do spasm of loyalty whatever.' The politician simply played off one rich colonist's vanity against another's. If A subscribed handsomely to tlm Patriotic Fnnd B weald da ditto ; C wasn't going to be outdone by D, nor, E. by F, and so the game was played. Whether this be true or not,one thing is eerttrin, Mr Dalley will be made K.G.M.G.