THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 1881.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6116, 24 June 1881, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 1881.

The action of the French Government in Tunis could not but produce a grave change in the relations of France and Italy, but from the character of the news "which the telegrams are now bringing us there would really seem to be danger of the quarrel coming to a head at once. The first effect of the announcement was immense excitement throughout Italy ; the existing Ministry resigned office because charged with having been slow in taking preventive steps; and the veteran Garibaldi, who gave the aid of his sword to France in 1871 and has been imbued with a strong desire for a close alliance with that Power, as soon as he heard the Tunis news raised himself from what is probably his death-bed to denounce ■what he proclaimed to be an insult to his nation. Since then the difficulty has undergone a further complication. Some returning regiments of the Tunis expedition landing in Marseilles, were hissed ■ as they passed the Italian Club-house by some of the members within. The Prefect, having arrived on the scene, was unable to preserve order. The incensed populace headed it is said by the Deputy-Mayor, tore down the Italian escutcheon from the front of the club, and the following day there was serious rioting in the streets, some persons being killed, and of the Italians, who are numerous in Marseilles, two hundred have been arrested. ISTecessarily as yet we have only the bald outlines of what happened. Of course it would not amount to much—a row between, the excitable inhabitants, native and foreign, of a Mediterranean city, if the respective Governments were amicably disposed, but it is not easy to foresee if the Governments will be allowed to be accommodating in the present angry temper of the two nations. Nations do not lightly go to war with each other in these modern days, but the Italians do not look upon this Tunis business as a light matter. On the contrary they consider that it touches their interests to the quick. Tunis stretches northward to within 80 miles of their coast in Sicily ; and the extension of the French dominion in Algeria over another great Barbary seaboard (for it seems that the ai - - rangement just concluded already gives to France the direction of the Tunisian foreign and financial aft'airs), the Italians regard as a revival of the old ambition of converting the Mediterranean into practically " a French lake." But if that idea, attributed to Bonaparte when he planned his expedition to Egypt, was impracticable

then, it Is certainly still more impracticable of realization now and henceforward, when Italy, a Mediterranean country, which was at that time only a cluster of broken provinces, some in foreign possession, and all under foreign influence, has now become. united and independent, and has taken a place in the' list of Great Powers.

No doubt; besides the reasonable fear of such French" extension opposite to her shores, and so close to them, Italy is touched on another point by this business. It interferes with her own views about Tunis. For centuries divided and controlled by strangers, and without her natural position in the circle of nations, she, like Germany, feels new aspirations arise with the strength conferred by unity and independence. Even without looking back to classical days, she remembers her great mediceval republics, when the Venetian banner of St. Mark and the Genoese banner of St. George represented the chief maritime states of the period, and floated not only over factories in foreign lands but over provinces and islands. What "Venice and Genoa and Pisa single-handed did she does not see why united Italyshould not now do. And her commerce has undergone a great expansion, her i navy at present takes rank as the! third in Europe, and she too has her dreams of outside enlargement, of foreign possessions. At the opposite side of the Mediterranean lie the States of Barbary—rich, civilised, and populous in ancient times, but in our day inert, fallen, helpless, bound to break up like other parts of the Ottoman Empire, and thereby offering a tempting field for European enterprise and ambition. France had already planted her flag in Algeria; why should not Italy do the same thing in that part of Barbary which is nearest to her 1 It was the territory of the Carthaginian, and seemed marked out as the hereditary prize of the descendant of the Roman. Such were the ideas that touched the speculation of statesmen and fired the popular fancy in Italy ; and for some , time back there has been active rivalry

between Italian and French interests in Tunis. Now the course taken by the French Government has clashed down from the expectant hand of her neighbour that to which she attached so much value. Was it wise of France to do this ? Certainly it was not a wise step, but a mad one, if she really means that I war with Germany, that recovery of Alsace, for which she has been making such great preparation. It was not wise to convert a probable ally into a certain enemy whenever the European Powers may be arrayed against each other. And Italy's enmity or alliance is no " unconsidered trifle," for she is at present one of the Great Powers, with a population of 27 millions, and, like the rest of the Continent, shehas had the conscription busily at work. Five years ago she already possessed, between the standing army and its reserves, 700,000 trained men; and, of course, as in the case of the other Powers, the number has greatly been augmented

since. And for what has France made this sacrifice ? It is difficult to understand. It is not easy to see what she

hopes to gain by annexing Tunis, another extensive region with a fierce Arab and Berber population, fanatical, and all bred to arms—precisely such a population as it cost her so many years to deal with in Algeria. And in Algeria she possesses a territory twothirds of her own extent, the development of which is only gradually commencing, and will for generations abundantly exercise all her undoubted organising ability. How the long-headed German Chancellor must laugh at this proceeding of the French Government'. Here he has been long striving for the Italian alliance, and striving in vain—and now the French Government obligingly casts it into his hand.! Italy joined Bismarck against Austria, with whom she had a quarrel of • her own. But Germany and Austria, are now politically one, and it is well understood that the overtures for closer, relations with German}' against Francje the Italians would Hot entertain, because of the sympathy between the Latin races, and because of the national feeling against "the Tedeschi" and the hereditary animus against Austria. The situation is altogether reversed when exasperated Italy regards France as her active enemy and future danger. "We can only conclude that the French Government no longer intend that German i war on which the nation seems still bent. But will it be optional with them to avoid if] And it seems curious preparation against such an I accident to have now created a new and powerful enemy in their rear.