A CLEVER HIT.

Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 61, 14 March 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

A CLEVER HIT.

A correspondent calls our attention to the following paragraph, which we are glad to observe is dated to-mor-row: — Evening Gazette, January 10. Fresh Annexation by Germany. It is rumoured that the German flag was this afternoon hoisted over the Tower of London, after some previous correspondence with Her Majesty's Government. It is said that a communication was first made to Lord Granville stating that Germany had an ancient claim, dating from a aettlement of Angles and Saxons, to tegard this country as her colony, and a more recent claim based on the German origin of the reigning Eoyal family, and on the existence of a large German colony iv the City and Sn the Charing-cross Hotel. Lord Granville seems to have referred the communication as raising a purely colonial question, to Lord Derby, and the latter is reported to have written in reply a despatch characterised by his ueual fairness and moderation, to the effect that Her Majessy's Government had for some time past been aware of of the ancient claims alluded to ; that he bad always regarded with favour tho expansion of Germany ; and that if Germany would undertake to protect British subjects in their trade and

commerce, and allow them equal rights with Germans, he could see no objection to the proposed annexation. Unless, however, some satisfactory assurance could be given on the latter point, Her Majesty's Governments would feel compelled to regard the contemplated proceeding of Germany as an unfriendly act. This rumour is officially denied, a circumstance which necessarily compels us to regard it with more apprehension than we should otherwisa feel.— Pall Mall Gazette.