BULLIED BRITONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7701, 9 May 1903, Page 2

BULLIED BRITONS.

Insults England has Pooketed.

(Pearson's Weekly,)

An important Liverpool shipping firm trading at Libreville, on the French Congo, waa recently summarily fined £1000 by the Frenoh authorities. Just a year ago tba same firm waa mulcted in a, sum of £1200.

These fines have been inflicted at the instance of French concessionaires, who insolently claim the exclusive right of trading on these watars.

These concessionaires -have even threatened openly to destroy the factories of Messrs John Holt and Co.

Britishers have jusb as much rigbb toi trade on the French Congo as anyone else, and have done so freely for years, ydb ou* Government has in tOris case not lifted a, finger to protect British interests. In spite of our owning so laxge a parti of that continent, ifc is always ia Africa! that British subjects seem to bs abused and bullied by foreign nations without any attempt being made by our Government TO EXTORT BEPAHATIOar. The Lothaire oase is an instance in point. On Jan. 15, 1895, Mr Stokes, an English ex-missionary and trader residing in the Congo Free State, ways seized by a Belgian) official, Major Lothaire, and bis subaltern Henri. A charge was trumped up against him of selling firearms .to the natives, aad he was hanged 1 Tbe whole business was murder, pure and simple. Lothaire committed tihe crime because be knew that, so long as the ex-missionary lived, he, Lartliaire t could nab enrich himself by gaining the commission allowed by the king on the ivory forwarded from the district Stokes worked.

In the following -June the murderer received his promotion! , It was A year before a, warrant was eiven issued ior Lothaire' s arrest, and fifteen months 'elapsed before he was tried. After a two days' trial at Boma he was acquitted, simply because tbe public prosecutor withdrew from tbe case.

Lothaire then went home, and was received in Brussels by an applauding crowd. MEANTIME OTJR GOVERNMENT DID NOTHIKOI

The Waima affair was another terrible blow to the presrtdge of Great Britain. Oh Dec. 23, 1893, at Waima, in Sierra Leone, -Lieutenant Maritz, a French officer, attacked a. British force under the command of Colonel EUis. Lieutenant Listen was killed, so was Se-cond-Lieutenant Wroughton, together with Captain Lendy, D.5.0., and seven noncommissioned officers and privates. Seventeen of bur men were also wounded.

Waima, as was dearly proved later on, is in tbe sphere of British influence, and tbe French force had no earthly busmess tor have been traveling tbere ab all. So plain was all tbia that in May, 1894„ tbe French Government expressed "feelings of regret." _ . Yet, will it be believed that our Foreign Office, even then, did not invite them to give compensation to the famines of tbe wantonly slain? At last, in 1893, after much private agitation, the Foreign Office requested compensation. France did nob reply for months, and it was only last year that a beggarly £9000 was forthcoming for tbe widows and families of the men WHO HAD BEEN MURDERED NINE , TEARS BEFORE 1 There is not a nation: which has not twisted the British Lion's tail, and yet remained unpunished. Turkey, of course, is an old and privileged offender. In November, 1901, the Pdrfce, wishing to close the British Post Office a.t Salonika, ordered the railway companies to refuse to accept the mail bags.. The British Ambassador protested, bufc instead of an apology, an order was issued next day to seize all packages addressed to British insurance companies. , - Again, a day or two later, £1000 worth of sweets imported from this country were stopped by the Customs authorities, on the trumpery excuse that they were unwholesome.

For many years British residents in Constantinople have been accustomed' to play cricket on the Okmeidan, a wide plateau jusb outside the town. Permission to do so was suddenly and rudely rescinded last year. Even more insulting was an edict forbidding all Turkish officers to associate with British subjects. A fclimax was reached when the British Mediterranean Squadron 1 , under Prince Louis of Battenberg, visited Alexandretta, Asia Minor.

Four officers went ashore on a shooting expedition. Without any cause, they were all seized and locked up, and, in spite of remonstrances, not released until nexfc day. The Spaniards, so friendly with" us for many years after tbe Peninsular War, seem of late to haveTfprgofcten their gratitude. They have erected forts at Linea, which are an actual threat to Gibraltar. It looks as if they bad become allies of some naval power which wishes to destroy Gibraltar. Apparently we have raised no objection. Ifc may be said thafc Spain has a right to build forts where she pleases on her own territory, and that we have no right to object ; but the same cawnofc be urged as to a still more recent Spanish insylfc. Between the Rock of Gibraltar and the mainland is a low, sandy peninsula.

One nighfc lasfc summer some smugglers crossing the neutral ground were fired on by the Spanish sentries. The smugglers were at the time quite close to our sentries, and this was perfectly plain to the Spanish soldiers. Yet, they continued to pour in volleys, and many bullets came dangerously near the beads of our men, while other British residents in the huts near the pumping station HAD VERY NARROW ESCAPES. This is the second time such a thing has happened. On the former occasion % Britisb solddet was actually killed. Yet apparently no official notice has been taken of the occurrence. Venezuela bas been making a terrible outcry aboufc the recent 'bombardment. She finds ifc convenient to forget tbe countless insults she has showered upon British subjects, and the loss and damage to which she has subjected them. To quote two instances only. About six months ajjo the trading sloop Maria Theresa, belonging to Mr Wilson, of Port of Spainj -was anchored off Guiria. He \ and bis crew went ashore, and at once the Venezuelan gunboat Miranda steamed ! alongside, poured barrels of pitch over the j sloop, and set her afire. A lew days later i the Miranda also looted and burnt in tbe ! same fashion the sloop Mariana, of TriniI dad. » British subjects in Newfoundland- suffer without any remedy at the hands of the insolent French fishermen. Tbe rights of tbe Fr&ch on fche so-called French shore are afc most only fishing rights. Seven years ago an ex-officer of the British Army invented all his fortune in a mine on that shore, presumably within British jurisdiction. Marines were landed from a French gunboat, and he was forcibly evicted. His pecuniary loss, is oetat £20,000. Yefc^ in spite of every representation, he has RECEIVED NO COMPENSATION WHATEVER ! Even this story is more than matched "by the doings in the Boeighbouring island -of Anticosti, which lies in the mouth of thei Sfc Lawrence, and is under British rule. The island was sold some* years ago to a Frenchman named Metnier, son oorf r the founder of the chocolatei firm of that name. This' chocolate tyrant proceeded to evict every British subject on the island, and soon after be took possession sixty EngliA Protestants were landed? ab Quiebec from the island, "homeless ami penniless. - Yet the Home Government has not lifted a single 'finger in protest. - .. Turn to tne Far East, and matters are just as bad. Three bluejackets belonging to H.M.S.

Woodcock were seized by a Chinese mob at Shashih last autumn, and severely thrashed with bamboo canes. No cam* pensation has 'been exacted.

The* seizure of the port of Masampho, in Corea, was another open insult to Britain on tbe part of Russia. Russia had long wanted the pportt t so waited until we bad our hands full in South Africa, and then took it. ' K