BRITAIN AND FRANCE IN AFRICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11058, 9 May 1899, Page 5

BRITAIN AND FRANCE IN AFRICA.

CONTENTIONS ENDORSED', By Telegraph-Press Association.-OonvriE

Paris, May 7. The Parliamentary Committee, of ttts Chamber of Deputies has approved of tho Anglo-French Upper Nile Convention Tho committee also endorsed the Anglo-French Niger Convention.

. The respective spheres of influence in Central Africa of Britain and France were determined by a convention signed in March last between Lord Salisbury and the French Ambassador, and the details will be settled by a Boundary Commission. The French Government lias definitely abandoned all pretensions to the province of Bahr-el-Ghazal, which, along with Darfur, will remain within the British sphere. But on the other band the limits of the Bahr-el-Ghazal have yet to be defined, and it is not distinctly stated that the watershed is to be regarded as the boundary. To the west of Darfur, the territories of Wadai, Kunew, and Bagirmi, lying between Darfur and Lake Tchad, are recognised as being within the limits of the French sphere, which will thus extend southward in an uninterrupted line from Algeria to the frontier of the Congo State. ■ To the south of Darfur and Wadai, the eastern limit of the French sphere is apparently left uncertain, but at any rate it will not'be deflected so as to include any part of the Bahr-el-Ghazal. Franco has agreed to evacuate any French posts that may still be left in that province. More important than the clauses which define the exact boundaries are those which determine the future relations between the two Governments now brought into such close proximity. One clause confers upon each country equal commercial rights, and the French are empowered to establish commercial stations both on the Nile and in the Bahr-el-Ghazal. On the other hand British adventurers will be allowed to establish themselves on the shores of Lake Tchad. 1 Both countries repudiate all intention of exercising political or territorial rights outside the spheres now roughly indicated, and if the compact be loyally carried out there need bo no fear of any serious clashing of interests, still less of any strained relations. It is satisfactory to know that public opinion in France is well satisfied with tho arrangement which has been made, and the only ad-, verse criticisms have appeared in the German press, which appears to consider that the Empire has rights in the neighbourhood of Lake Tchad to which sufficient respect has not been paid. England cannot but be satisfied, for the Valley of tho Nile, with the Bahr-el-Ghazal, Darfur, and Kordofan, are now indisputably ours. France on the other hand possesses an African empire which extends from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, and she can if she likes link Algiers and Brazzaville by a railway running through her undisputed territory.