Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/20

 12] ENGLISH HISTORY. [«*.

or carrying on the slightest business, with the houses I have mentioned will be at once imprisoned, no security being given against heavy penalties." At this un indigene moms moutonneux (sic) protested that " it may so happen that the articles which we need can be only found in the shops which are prohibited to us." To which the official replied : " Well, you must do without them."

The extinction of our trading rights with Madagascar with- out negotiation or pretext of compensation was an act of high- handed hostility of which our ministers failed to take notice at the time, and Lord Salisbury possibly found some difficulty in reviving a claim which we had failed to press with sufficient insistence at the moment. The simultaneous discussion of the questions of the Nile Valley, Madagascar trade, and the New- foundland Fisheries seemed a favourable opportunity for the simultaneous settlement of three harassing matters of discord between the two countries ; but the disturbed state of politics in France seemed to render any definite arrangement impossible with the constantly changing occupants of the Quai d'Orsai.

The publication of this correspondence almost coincided with that of the convention between the British and Egyptian Governments dealing with the future of the Soudan, an ar- rangement which provoked a general irritation among French newspaper writers. The convention began by reciting that the Soudan had been reconquered by the joint military and financial efforts of the two Governments. The Soudan was defined to be territories south of the twenty-second parallel of latitude con- quered or remaining to be conquered. Throughout these the British and Egyptian flags were to fly side by side, except at Suakin. The Governor-General of the Soudan — appointed by Khedivial decree, but only with British consent, and removable only with the same consent — was to have supreme military and civil control, and to be empowered to rule by proclamation. No Egyptian laws or decrees should apply to the Soudan, and no Europeans have special privileges (the capitulations being thereby ignored). Import duties were to be identical with those on goods entering Egypt, but Egyptian goods would enter the Soudan free. The jurisdiction of the Mixed Tribunals was not to extend into the Soudan, which remained under martial law. No foreign consuls could reside in the territory without the consent of the British Government, and the slave trade was absolutely abolished. The situation created by this document, although the logical out- come of preceding events, could not fail to challenge the notice of European statesmen, bringing before them, as it did, the inferential intention of Great Britain to remain the practical protector of Egypt, and to hold that position against all comers. On this point it was expedient as well as inevitable for England " to have a conversation with Europe " in order that her de facto position should be morally recognised by the other Powers.

After the first explosion of irritation had passed off, the tone