France and England.

Opunake Times, Volume II, Issue 57, 18 January 1895, Page 4

France and England.

Speaking at Surbiton last week (says The Times of 16th November) on the relations between Fiance and England Sir R. Temple, M.P., said he supposed there were few living Englishmen who had travelled over France as ho bad, and he was in a position to say that the stories told in the English preas regarding the dangerous conditions of public opinion in Prance towards England were not fictitious, but very sober realities. If they erred at all, it was that they did not fully represent the real danger of the situation. The leading idea of nearly all the leading men in France was in the direction of a hostile attack against England. Ho did not say that they had actually thought of the policy of war, but they were going on in a manner which would lead to war unless very great ratience was exercised on this side of the Channel. England’s occupation of Egypt was at the bottom of all the trouble. The two matters most likely to cause a breach were the occupation of Siam, by the French, and the proposed arrangement between the Congo State and France in the mild valley of Nile. The continued occupation by France of the important part of Chantaboon was as great a danger to the independence of Siam as would be to England the occupation of the estuaries of the Thames by a foreign power. If Siam went to pieces and the French took occupation, India would be between Russian and French fires. In Africa England had a direct line of communication from the source to the mouth of the Nile, and she could not tolerate for a moment any danger to that communication. Yet France had endeavoured to form a treaty with the Congo States by which she would bring her outposts to within 50 miles of the mid valley of the Nile. That was a very grave and important matter, and might lead to complications at any moment.