THE NIGER DISPUTE SETTLED.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 136, 10 June 1898, Page 5

THE NIGER DISPUTE SETTLED.

THE QUESTION AT ISSUE

Everyone will welcome (he nnr.ounccnienf. which is made in our cable news to-day, on the authority nf Keuter's Agency,.that ali territorial questions :•! issue between (ireaf Britain and France in connection with i lie Niger difficulty have been adjusted. The sensational speech made by Mr Chamberlain a few weeks ago aroused [Tine apprehensions of Avar between Ungland and France arising out of the hostile attitude assumed by France towards British interests in Nigeria and on the Upper Nile. We have explained in previous issues the points in dispute on the Niger. A referenceto the attached map will make the matter perfectly clear. The Northern and coastal boundaries of the British, French and German territories in this part of Africa have been settled by formal agreements entered into in I.SSS, "86, *s)ti and '!):!. Under these agreements the claims of England to Say on the Niger wns formally acknowledged. Britain contends both on the ground of her rights under theso agreements and because of treaties entered into by the Royal Niger Company with the native rulers of Borgu, thai the whole of the Hinterland from the coast to Say is within the British sphere. But French expeditions have invaded these territories ami penetrated as far as lJusa. and Bagibo on the1 Niger. Some of these invasions have been repudiated by the FrenchGovernment, nevertheless there is little doubt, the leaders have received official encouragement, and the continual occupation of Nikki by France produced a state of tension which might at any moment have resulted in hostilities.

The policy of France was unquestionably to squeeze England as far as possible—tactics that have, succeeded admirably in Siam, Tunis, and Matin/gnwnr. The armed occupation of territory which is unquestionably British was, however, going- rather far, and although to-day's cablegrams do not give the terms of settlement, we may rest assured that the right of Rutland to Borgu has been eoneeded.