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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4559, 30 October 1875, Page 2

The Ncue Preie Presso of Vienna in its issue of July 24 has the following trenchant, even if untrue, remarks on England’s foreign policy :—“ The true cause of the irritation is no mere smarting under the sense of defeat. Englishmen care only for £ s. d. in their policy, and have no sentiment. . . . ‘ Can I eat honor,' asked the witty and cautious friend of Prince Henry. No one in England cared a straw when Lord Derby lamentably failed in mediating between Germany and France ; for honor is not an article of commerce. But the question whether the vassals of Turkey can conclude commercial conventions with foreign powers has a practical importance for England, because it touches her tenderest feelings—the pocket. . . . The key of British policy may be found in the following sentence of Lord Derby’s despatch, dated 20th of November, 1874, to Sir H. Elliott :—‘ The 20th paragraph of the Commercial Treaty between England and Turkey, dated 29th of April, 1869, stipulates that it shall have effect

in. all the possessions of his Majesty the Sultan, whether in Europe or Asia, in Egypt, or any other part of Africa, belonging to the Porte, as well as in Servia and the Danubiau Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.’ Therefore, Lord Derby concludes, Roumania has no light to contract commercial conventions. Here, then, we have the gist of the matter. England is furious at Austrian rivalry on the Danube, where it was hitherto omnipotent. In 1873, three hundred British steamers passed the Sulina, coming down the Danube into the Black Sea. Consul Ward in 1871 estimated British imports in Galatz and Ibraila at one million pounds sterling, a third of the whole import to these places, whilst he rates the export to England at half as much again. These cyphers explain everything. England does not defend the rights of Turkey, but her trade in Roumania; and Lord Derby writes bitter notes, not because he thinks of the Crimean War, but because he sees the sour faces of English exporters.”