The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9. 1889.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 267, 9 November 1889, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1889.

■ —+ • For the canas that lacks assifitacco, Jer th« ■wrong that needs resiatanoe, , 7«r the future in Use diatanse, And tha gc»d that we can do.

Now that Britons everywhere are celebrating or are about to celebrate th e anniversary of the birth of their coming King, it will not be inappropriate to glance at the visit which the Prince ot \ Wales has just been paying to Egypt. That this visit has a significance which does not appear on the surface, almost goea without speaking. The most natural surmise as to the object of the Prince's tour through, the land which held the ancient Israelites in bondage, but which is now heavily " bonded " to the Anglo-Israelites of to-day, is that it has a connection with the inevitable annexation of that country as a dependency of the British Crown. "Why else should Albert Edward have avoided Constantinople and iihe Suitan of Turkey, who is the nominal suzerain of Egypt—confining^ his attentions to the Khedive at Cairo ? It will be remembered that the HeirApparent made a triumphal tour of

India to celebrate the assumption of the title of Empress of India by his august mother, and it will be inferred that his visit to Egypt has a similar significance, only that it is prospective instead of retrospective ir» its application. Nor will it be forgotten that the Prince of Wales has frequently expressed a desire to visit the Australasian colonies, but Her Majesty, "for State reasons," has declined to sanction the journey. Since it is clear that the Prince of Wales's movements outside of England are controlled by reasons of State poiicy, it is undoubted that he has not undertaken a visit to the land of the Pharaohs merely to gratify a caprice or to enjoy a change of climate. /

Apparently, too, x the French and Russian Governments place a significant interpretation upon the future King of England's visit to Egypt. The Consuls of those Powers at Cairo, though invited to the grand banquet given by the Khedive in honour of the English Heir-Apparent, declined to attend. They would not have acted thus without special instructions or sanction from headquarters, and this is borne out by the fact that a telegram from Paris says that the French press is indignant in its comments on the Prince's Egyptian tour. The visit seems to have been an ovation all the way and all the time. The Egyptians are a race of slaves, and their reception of anybody simply means that they have been ordered to act in a given way. The whole significance lies firstly in the fact that the English Heir-Apparent should have gone there at all, and secondly in the circumstance that his visit had no reference whatever to Turkey. France is peculiarly sensitive about the growth of British influence in Egypt, and" the incident of the joint action of the two Consuls at Cairo emphasises the fact that Russia is in warm accord with her on the Eastern Question. A.s there are signs of Russia making her long-contemplated advance on Constantinople, U is not at all unlikely that the British counter-cow^ oi taking possession of Egypt may be made in anticipation of Russia's move.