The Feilding Star, Oaoua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Published Daily. SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1896. FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 237, 11 April 1896, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oaoua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Published Daily. SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1896. FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

The occupation of Egypt by England has, since 1883, been a sore subject with France, especially as an implied promise was made by the then Ministry not to remain in Egypt. In that connection, in an interesting article in the Nineteenth Century, M. Francis de Pressense (foreign editor of Le Temps) acknowledges that frequent attempts have been made since 188G to make good that obligatfou, but France has not been without) responsibility in their frustration. He goes on to ask : " Suppose the continuation of the occupation is wholly laid at the door of France, has not an unfair advantage been taken of this circumstance in order to lengthen, or rather to perpetuate, this anomalous condition of things ? Have not the press and leading statesmen talked as if it was in the fitness of things for England t) keep in her possession this half-way house on her road to India % If mistakes neither few nor small have been

committed in Paris, and by even the French diplomatic agents in Cairo, who will dare to say that no countercharges could be laid to the door of Downing street, or of Englishmen in Egypt? Atter all said and done, can any rational friend of peace think that Egypt, even if great English interests were implied in her retention, would be worth a quarrel between the two countries 1 Many thoughtful competent men in England hold that Egypt under British occupation is a snare, a delusion, and a peril ; that it lures England to false security ; that it draws from her scanty military resources too large a body of troops ; and that the best and only working arrangement for the Suez Canal in time of war would be neutralisation under the common guarantee of the Powers. Such being the case, it cannot be beyond and above the strength of diplomacy to find the basis of an understanding on this point. In order to maintain peace among the nations of Europe the writer suggests a friendly alliance with England, choosing the latter in preference to Germany, because the Alsace Lorraine question makes that impossible, while he does not see any unmanageable opposition against an understanding between France and Britain. But it must be a union of hearts, reciprocal — not all the sacrifices on one side only. It must be complete, definitive, without vagueness propitious to misunderstandings. But France is not alone. France is allied to Russia, and when she contracts she contracts for two. A fact wholly to the advantage of England. Nothing could be more beneficial than a complete and simultaneous arrangement with France in Africa, with Russia iu^Asia, and with both everywhere. This is not to be an offensive warlike alliance. On the contrary, it is the peace of the world which should be immovably insured. If the two great liberal nations of the West, drawing into their orbit the great Russian Empire, roi-med a Triple Alliance of peace and good will the world would thrill with joy, and mankind feel itself liberated from a nightmare. The picture has its charms, but we fear its realisation is impossible.