FRANCE AND THE MISRULE IN TURKEY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5733, 28 November 1896, Page 7

FRANCE AND THE MISRULE IN TURKEY.

The wave of humane enthusiasm whicli a few weeks ago swept over England, and led to strong demonstrations being made in favour of active intervention to compel reforms in the Turkish Empire, seems now to have reached France. The addresses delivered in the Church of the Madeleine, at Paris, on .Sunday last, and which moved hundreds of people to tears, demanded that the "hateful system of persecution and massacre" in Turkey should be brought to a close. The conscience of France, like that of England, has been aroused; but it dees not follow that the common action of the Powers in Turkey has thereby been facilitated. The Russian policy is to wait till the plum is ripe, and then to swallow it. In this cynical attitude conscience counts for nothing, and there is a callous indifference as to the amount of suffering and injustice that may be inflicted- meanwhile. It is becoming evident that England, France and Eussia can only be brought to a common understanding on Turkish questions by England in some way disarming French hostility to the continued occupation of Egypt. M. Francois Deloncle, in the course of a recent interview with a representative of the Pall Mall Gazette, declared that England's impotence was due to the refusal of her statesmen "to understand that Egypt lies at the bottom of the entire Eastern question, just as AlsaceLorraine lies at the bottom of the entire Continental question." M. Deloncle is sometimes accused of Anglophobia, but he now professes to be sincerely desirous of a Franco-English entente. "Ah," he exclaimed to pthe interviewer, "if England were not isolated, if France were not being dragged ridiculously along at the tail of the Russian Eear, the situation would be different." M. Deloncle gives the following as the probable outcome of a cordial understanding between England and France : — " The neutralisation of Constantinople under some European Prince, the Sultan driven into Asia, an Armenian independent State nnder the protection of Eussia, much asBulgaria is now, the British in Smyrna — theso aro elements of a feasible solution. But rest assured that France would not take Syria— fancy a French prefect at Jerusalem! Nor would she want to step into England's shoes by occupying Egypt; she has enough on her hands already. Madagascar is going to give her quite enough trouble to cure her of seeking any more colonial conquests. France and England would once more be friends. The Czar would no longer be our Suzerain, as to our shame be it said he is to all intents and purposes to-day. And France and England hand-in-hand would top European civilisation and dominate the world. A. dream ? It depends upon you to make it a reality." It is to be feared that M. Deloncle, like other extremists, exaggerates when he .declares that the majority in France agrees with his view, and that he is over-sanguine as to the results that might be' expected to flow from an Anglo-French understanding; but everyone must agree that such an understanding is' greatly to be desired, and would be in the interests of peace and humanity. !