A FRANCO-ENGLISH DIFFICULTY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 36, 13 February 1894, Page 2

A FRANCO-ENGLISH DIFFICULTY.

A London despatch received in New York on January (j says :-•« There has been some strange night encounter between kngh&h and 1< renca forces in the bush iip the river in the Niger Valley in that vague hinterland between Sierra Leone and Senegambia. Three well-known young English ofheors, with sixteen black soldiers in British uniforms, have been killed by French weapons. The original reports from Sierra Leone, both to the news agency and to tha I'oreign Oihce, ascribe the action to be a mistake on the part of the French, who are said to Lave tuken the negroea of a Wtßt Indian, regiment, despite their uniforms, foraivaie native?. To put it mildly, this explanatioa impresses L)ndou us quite «to> thin ' and scepticism in all the more easy beoauee for yflnr* back a numbor of Prenoh officers along tho Upper Niger, notibly Lieut Mlion, bayo displayed the utmost lanoour towards the English, and hive been boldly taking, <m their own initiative, a line of hostility whioh the Frenob Foreign Offloe has been forced to disavow, h izon returned to Paris a few months ajo and fcjld his side of the story which b.nh tho England B'lgi&u offioialß in the Cor go country denounced as a paok of lies, but whioh so took tho Pnrißiai fanoy that Mz in beoimethe hero of the hour, and tho Pnriaian press bullied the Frenoh Foreign OlHoo into a b-oifc promise that hereafter I-renoh interests in the debatable binter* laad should be more vigorously looked aft.'r. loose antecedent oiroumstauoea raiae a tolerably substantial presumption against; tho theory fiat t io catastrophe at Warina was due t) an innocent mietake, but ia epite of this feeling the London raperaapeak vory guardedly of the innttjr. MinUtarial papers, like the Daily New aad Chronicle, ire a trifl) more alarmist ia toae tiaa « The Times and tho Tory orgma, while evening pipers of all shad.B counsel cool heads aud pationoa till it is seen what the French will do. Sj far a3 one hears from Pacis there art only brief Press oommeats pitohed in a rather oarelesa key a foreshadowing » position that the fault waa British, feeoausa their fccoops woie not on Bntish territory The da iger is net so much that tae Fronoh boieiga OlDoe desires to avoid an apoloxr and reparation a? thht the futioua^&nfi, b ighsh spirit in Pariß may fan up a commotion whioh will ooeroe the Foreign Offlc* into making diffioultiea against its will. I his w,»a tho case iv the SiamdifflouUy, and the proaant v reoogniaei by ererybody t) h4 a far graver uf£»ir," *

A ater despatoh says it nppoara that tha> attack : tjok p!aio well within [the ephere of t Brituh influence. A British force bl 600> I Nativo troops, operating again.'&Mie Sotas, while m camp, were attached earls i.b tb.Be ■ morumg by Bjagaloso s,hdrp3hootßrß nadl Native Freuoh aoxilUrlcs. The mooa was. ahiuiug brightly at tho time. loapeotor(JdDer.il Leudy, of tho British force, and a number of Native troops of both sides were k i lle * \ tt ' h6 encwuater, as the oonoluaioa I ™ F"noh foroes retired, leaving the I; ranch commander, Lieut. Moritz, oa the fisld. Ho W ns brought into the British raaip and oued for, but died. Before death he explained thit he misfc)ok the white service uaiforma of fae British force for * u dro c: 8 , of tha Arab ohiß^ *« oommaad of tho Sofas. Tho Colonial Offloe will i-i. vedtiga-.e thoroughly.