ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 7730, 2 July 1903, Page 4

ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

FASHODA AND WAR.

A SENSATIONAL BEVEL '-TION.

I One of the many ma^B raoetinßS that are now being held in the English provinces in favour of a permanent fir bit ration treaty beI tween England and France was addressed ut Manchester by Mr Thomas Barclay, exPresident of ti.e British Chamber of Commerce in Paris. In the course of his speech Mr Barclay made statements as to the extent; of the tension between England and France at th*e time of the FashocU incident. The following startling passage is quoted directly fiom the speaker's remarks, which occupy upI wards of two columns' epace in a recent issue of the Manchester Guardian : "I do not tbink tint in this country we have' 'quite realised bow near we were to war on that .occasion with France — I refer to the Fashoda, incident. The trench Government spent' 75 millions of francs— three millions ster- . ling — iv putting the Channel ports on a war' footing, ambulance requisitions were sent ont to every church along the French coast, beds were requisitioned, and every pre- ' pa ration was made for the outbreak of hostilities. "I am assured, on excellent authority, that the French Mediterranean fleet passed Gibraltar at dead of night with lights, extinguished, and joined the Channel fleet off Cherbourg. Our Mediterranean • fleet was east of Malta, and no preparations, 1 think, were made on this Bide of t the Channel for the struggle which seemed imminent. "The whole thing was, jirobably due to .a misunderstanding. Tho French, no doubt, thought that, we meant to attack them, and I have a conviction that they did not themselves consider for one tuomeut the possibility of an attack coming from .them. "Misunderstanding -the want of some 'means of breaking the point of the anger— seems to me to have brought about tbis proximity, of war which happily came to nothing. It was not due, however, to 'negotiators coming, together amicably settling the difficulty, But it was due, practically, to an act of force. 11 An ultimatum was praotidally banded to the French Government, and it is one of the finest things that the present Fre; eh Govern- , ment has ever done that (hey did not allow ' the natural national pride to drag tbotn into war, the results of iwbioh would have beeij as ; disastrous certainly to the ond side a? to the : other." <■• ■ ■■' '