The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORTED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 1905. DELCASSE AND FRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 137, 9 June 1905, Page 4

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

FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 1905. DELCASSE AND FRANCE.

For the cause that lacks asaiirtance. For the wrung that needs rcswcanoc, Vor the future in the distance. A.nd the uood thai we can do.

I The news that M. Deleasse, the French i Foreign Minister, has felt compelled j once more to send in his resignation is I the most ominous intelligence that has | reached us from Europe for a long time j past. Throughout his long career, M. : Delcassc has stood for "peace with hon- ! our." and he has so managed tho foreign i affairs of his country as to rouse the I hitter animosity of t.ho German Kaiser j and to command the admiration and re-! sped of the rest of tho world. No other j statesman can bo named who within the j last ten years has done so much as M. j Deleasse to preserve the peace of Europe ! while extending the power and raisin" I the prestige of his own country. Tho i ; Morocco agreement was one of his lat- j est succpssps. and this brought him not for the first lime into direct opposition ! to Germany's ambitions. When the! Kaiser decided to hazard a forlorn hope j in Morocco, and made his memorable \ visit to Tangier, the German press free- ! ly denounced Deleasse for not formally ; notifying Germany when the agreement j was made. Unfortunately, though M. | Deleasse is the most popular and the j best resppt-ted statesman in France, the i Nationalists and the Socialists, for yioli- • tieal reasons, expressed their antagonism to M. Rouvier's Government by a per- : sonal attack upon him. Not only has he always been an advocate of the '•expansionist"' colonial policy, but he is a firm friend of Russia: and for both rea- : sons he is obnoxious to the Socialis's. M. Jaures. the brilliant orator who leads the Socialist party, seems to have j lost sight of the fact, that in attacking-! M. Deleasse he was playing into the i hands of Germany; and two months! ago the French Foreign Minister iesigned. Great, was the joy of the German official journals: but it was happily shortlived. President Loubet and M. Rouvier. the French Premier, at once urged Del- ! casse to recon-ider his derision, and, a.s the result of an almost, unanimous requisition from the chief parties in the ! Chamber of Deputies, the great Foreifrn I Minister returned at oncp to office. Rut the resources of political animosity n.nd . German intrigue wore not yet exhausted. The Kaiser's aggressive conduct in Morocco hap caused grave anxiety in I France, and the collapse of Russia has ! ; naturally affected the prestige of the! statesman with whose -career the Dual! Alliance is most closely associated in \ the public mind. Once more, therefore. ' to remove a source of disunion from i the Cabinet, and to disarm at once his political enemies and the "reptile" press subsidised by Germany. M. Deleasse has for the time, being withdrawn from public- life. A brief glance at M. Dolcasse's career' may help to explain the value of !ii.-> j public services r.nd the importance at- ! tached in diplomatic circles to his tern-' porary eclipse, lie has been called "the ' world's greatest peace Minister," and certainly no other statesman of the day I has administered the foreign affairs of j his country with so much dexterity and i succe=«. He started life as a journalist, and later entered the Chamber of Depu- ' ties. He is now only a little over 50 , years old. but by 1303 he held an im- ! portant post in the French Foreign Office, and *in'..-e 1898 he has been <-on- I' tinuously Foreign Minister, (hough ad-j ministrations have come and jnno in i rapid succession. Ribot, Dupuy.'Meline. • Brisson, Wal-deek - Rousseau, Combes '■ and Rouvier have all one after the other expressed their admiration foT Deleasse. ] and in spite of the intensity of party feeling in France, he maintained his hold upon the confidence of the people, ■ unshaken by the ebb or flow of party strife. This is in itself a remarkable almost an unparalleled achievement; J but M. Delcasse's record at the Foreign ; Office goes far to explain it. He is the • Minister who guided France safely I through the terrible Fashoda crisis; he ! : I negotiated the Anglo-French agreement, i : which secured French interests on the', Nile, and healed his country's wounded susceptibilities: he negotiated the con- ; vention with fiiam by which France be- ' came, practically arbiter of the destinies of Indo-China; he formulated for the j Powers of Europe the demands imposed

upon China after the Boxer rising; and now he has arranged a series of compromises with England which bid fair to extinguish the rivalries and redress the grievances of centuries, and to bind the two great nations together by indissoluble ties of confidence and friendship. And while he has been doing all this M. Delcasse has 3OJ conducted himself that even his political! opponents are said to love him. "AIL who know M. Deleasse like him, ,, said Sir Chas. Dilke last year,, "and almost all men, even in his own country, speak well of him. llis evident patriotism and enlightenment, his tact, and, above all, that high courage which obtains its effective opportunity whi?n backed byj master}' of the subject, always save him." To lose such a man at such a moment is for France nothing less than a national misfortune, which even M. Rouvicr's good luck and unquestioned ability will scarcely neutralise. For it must be admitted that the relations existing between the European! I Powers just now arc in the highest dc-j grce precarious. The Kaiser's erratic] but persistent activity is causing more than the usual amount of uneasiness, among diplomatists; and the form in which he has raised the question of the' Morocco agreement is certain to lead to trouble. The cordial understanding between England and France—due largely to the tact and skill of our own King, but affected with the sympathetic aid ofi hi. Delcasse—is a serious blow to Germany ; and the Kaiser has seized upon j the Morocco Agreement as a convenient ' excuse for checking the expansion of] j France, and causing friction between j France and England. For the Kaiser is I a most astute diplomatist, and h.? knows ; that the Socialists and the Nationalists lin France may be depended upon to work I unconsciously in his favour. That he has ■ not over-estimated his chances of sucj cess in this particular is proved by M.| l Delcas?i?'s second resignation. It is more than likely that M. Rouvicr will j not prove so. impracticable as his I Foreign Minister in dealing with Oer-j j many. But even at the worst the Kai-j J nor will have got rid of Delcassp, and he \ will —without any intention of carrying: ! the matter to extremes—throw upon! i England the responsibility of redeeming; .his pledge to France to hack up the Mo- ; roceo Convention. If Mr. Balfour does, I not so fur in this direction as France! I expects, the seeds of discord will have once more l>ci?n sown between France! .and England. If, on the other hand, the j British Government is incliucd to take, ja vigorous tone in support of France, the j Kaiser can depend upon the good offices; iof the Opposition which, for party pur-' ' poses, played his cards so effectually for l j him during the Boer War. In any case, Germany scores a distinct success ; through this Morocco and it is significant that this outburst of malign activity has followed closi- upon the! , disasters that have overtaken Russia in j lthe Far East. For the time. Germany, has nothing to fear from Russia, and! i France has nothing to hope from beri I broken and dispirit<>d ally. At such a ; moment it is a great victory for the Kaiser to have baulked France in onej of her cherished projects, to have cast! an unpleasant responsibility upon England, and to have driven from public life the most successful Foreign Minister of the day. and the most ardent advocate of international peace. i