FRANCE AND THE SUEZ CANAL.

Waipawa Mail, Volume 5, Issue 527, 2 October 1883, Page 3

FRANCE AND THE SUEZ CANAL.

“ Not since 1815,” says the Journal dos Debats, “ has the feeling between England and France been so embittered as it is now.” Of rampant Anglophobia the following extracts from an article in the Evenement is a fair specimen : —“ It would be too much to expect that this sour, restless, and tyrannical people, who cannot boast an army of 50,000 soldiers, but who believe that they can do just as they please in the world because they possess the largest number of vessels and sailors, would leave Suez in the hands of a French company, while they hold a grip of Gibraltar and Aden. England will not consent to be the generous and enlightened associate of M. de Lesseps and Mr Gladstone in the work of developing and perfecting our Suez enterprise. From the point of view of civilisation in general this miscarriage of the most glorious enterprise ever undertaken for the present and future union of two nations cannot be too much deplored. The accord would have effaced more than one cause of resentment and dispute. Its rejection will rekindle Booner or later quarrels which are the legacy of ages, and which the chivalrous magnanimity and lofty policy of France have done so much to extinguish. ”