THE TUNISIAN DIFFICULTY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2554, 28 May 1881, Page 3

THE TUNISIAN DIFFICULTY.

W S> are all of us familiar (says “ Anglo-Australian ” in the -‘European Mail”) with large “runs” in the colonies, hut the little Tunisian difficulty which has sprung up between France and England, and to which reference has been made in the French Press has reference to a “ run ” ns large as Yorkshire. The story goes that one Joseph Levy, a British subject, claimed, according to the local laws, a preemptive right over the Enlida estate, of which a great French hanking company, La Societe Marseillaise, had obtained wrongful possession. Mr Lev}-, not to be done, tendered the purchase money, and took possession by driving the cows out again, ignored the British Consul’and declared the estate to be French property independent of native jurisdiction. France sent a couple of ironclads to protect her rights, and England sent a couple to protect hers. The affair has, however, since been to some extent amicably arranged. The French Consul was to be removed, the ironclads were ordered to go on a cruise in different directious, and the question was left to be settled by arbitration, or by the local courts, or in some other way. The vendor, in order to void Mr Levy’s right of preemption, which consists in being next door neighbor, had reserved a narrow strip of neutral territory all round the Enfida, but Mr Levy owns some land within the belt, and thus retains his right. The question, however, has not yet been settled.