THE SUEZ CANAL.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1859, 21 July 1874, Page 2

THE SUEZ CANAL.

M, de Lesseps, the head of the Suez Canal Company, is in a terrible state of mind. The Turkish Government insist that he shall adhere to the contract rates of charge on vessels passing through the canal. M. de Lesseps thereupon threatens that he will close his lighthouses, take off his pilots,. and in fact close the canal. The Khedive thereupon informed him tha^ if he carried out his threats, the canal would be worked by Egyptian officers, but " it is not quite certain that M. de Lesseps in'ay not sink a ship in mid-channel. As the English traffic alone through the canal amounts to nearly, a million tons, of shipping, or two-thirds of the. whole, this. mad feat must be prevented at all hazards, and perhaps the be3t plan would be to . buy the canal at a price, say half the money expended, and work it by English hydraulic'engineers. At all events/it must not be stopped, even if Lord Salisbury has to call for the plan of Sir James Outram is said to have submittedto Lord Halifax. There are limits to proprietary rights over ; the European trade, with Asia/ aud 'limits' also to human gratitude towards the benefactors of the world. M. de Lesseps deserves wealth, and so, doubtless, does the Duke of Westminster, but we should not allow the latter to set Belgravia on fire or turn it into a Sahara of broken bricks. : • v Speaking of the probable action of the English Government, should the threat to close the canal be carried out, the Spectator says Lord Derby's chance, has arrived. M. de Lesseps has warned the Admiralty that, in future, British ' men-of-war must pay the passage-dues before entering the Uanal at Port Said, and the Board of Trade that ' British vessels frill have in future to take the old .route round the Cape, or discharge their ships' cargoes at Alexandra,?'/ unless they pay the new duties, which are utterly illegal,' and oniy imposed because the Suez Canal Company has not made as much as M. de Lesseps expects. The rates are already extrayagan), but M. de Lesseps declares that if tn« new charges are not paid he will dismiss the pilots, put out the lights, and close, the Canal. Mr Disraeli said he did not consider " M. Lessep's determination one " that need be looked on in a serious light," and that remark provoked M. de Lesseps to make it serious. That must not/ be. If Lord Derby allows the. Canal , .to "tie closed for a week— and it must be closed by the 30th, or not at all — even at the risk of a war with' France, hi 3 reputation with men of , business will be gone for ever. The Porte -will probably do its fluty, and arrest M. de Lesseps before Kis wild threat is carried into execution, but if it will not, we must. Benefactors of the human race must not withdraw their benefits^ : though ■' they may be entitled to compensation. In a subsequent issue the "Spectator says : M. de Lesseps has, it is stated, submitted, but under protest, and not till Egyptian troops had taken; possession-of-the-Ganal. His company,, of course, backs him entirely, and it is evident that the maritime powers interesedj in the work must, , in the long rub, buy out the shareholders. Tj&y

have forfeited much of their moral right by pretending to treat the Canal as pri vate property, which, under their own agreements, it is not ; but it will be convenient to be rid of their claims. The Straits of Suez cannot be owned, auy more than the Straits of Gibraltar. As we expected, it was Mr Disraeli's remark on M. de Lesseps' reasonableness which is said to have made him for a moment so impracticable.