FRANCE AND EGYPT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10099, 7 April 1896, Page 5

FRANCE AND EGYPT.

DEBATE IN THE SENATE. THE PREMIER REFUSES TO MAKE A FULLER EXPLANATION. VOTE OF CENSURE CARRIED. WHY M. BERTHELOT RESIGNED. IMPORTANT EXPLANATION, HIS POLICY VETOED BY RUSSIA. Pa' Association.— Telegraph.—Copyright, Paris, April 4. The Senate demanded that the Premier should fully explain the attitude the Government took up on the Egyptian question. M. Bourgeois replied that a fuller statement was impossible. The President asked the Senate to follow the lead of the Chamber of Deputies, and authorise the Government. to open up negotiations with the British Government while awaiting fresh facts. M. Milliard, however, reproached the Premier with allowing events to take him by surprise, saying the Government was unaware of the preparations for the Dougola expedition, and moved a motion of censure, which was adopted by a majority of seventy. M. Berthelot, explaining his reasons for resigning his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs, said he announced in the Cabinet the policy he intended to take up on tho Egyptian question. It defined the precise attitude towards England without consulting Russia. Subsequently a strong letter from Prince Lobanoff, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, condemning his policy, was read at a Cabinet meeting, and M. Berthelot thereupon resigned. London, April 4. The Times' Paris correspondent says that with a majority in the Chamber of Deputies of 90, M. Bourgeois achieves his object of postponing a discussion on the Egyptian question till May, and remains master of the situation. The European press ridicules the suggested international conference to settle the future control of Egypt. The Times considers there is very little chance of inducing the Triple Alliance to co-operate with FrancoRussian strategy. London, April 6. The Paris correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette states that a basis of accord has been reached between Great Britain and France.