The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-01-07
MAY BE SERIOUS.
Trouble Arises Out of
Africa.
ENGLISH SOLDIERS SLAIN.
1t Is Claimed to Have Been a
Mistake.
FRANCE WILLING TO APOLOGIZE.
But 1t Is Gravely Feared That the
Feeling in Paris May Pre-
cipitate Crisis.
RANCE WILLING TO APOLOGIZE.

NEW YORK, Jan. 6.-Harold Frederic
cables the Times from London: Suddenly,
and, II not from a clear sky, at least from IAN
unexpected quarter of the horizon. light
ming flash has startled Europe. There has
been some strange night encounter be-
tween English and French forces in the
bush up the river in the Niger Valley in
that vague hnterland between Sierra
Leone and Senegamba. Three we'll
known young English officers, with six
teen black soldiers in British uniforms.
have been killed by French weapons. The
original reports from Sierra Leone, both
to the news agency and to the Foreign Of
fee, ascrbe the action TO a mistake on the
part OF the French, who are said to have
taken the negroes of a West India regi-
ment, despite their uniforms. for savage
natives.
To put it mildly, this explanation i'm
presses London as quite "too thin," and
skepticiSm is all the more easy because for
years back a number of French officers
along the upper Niger, notably Lieutenant
Nixon, have displayed the utmost rancor
toward the English and have been boldly
taking, on their own initiative, a line of
hostility which the French Foreign Office
has been forced to disavOw.
Nixon returned to Paris few months ago
and told his side OF the story, which both
the English and Belgian officials in the
Nlger-Congo country denounced as pack
Of lies, but which so took the Partisan
fancy that Nixon became the hero of the
hour, and the Partisan press bullied the
French Foreign Office into tacit promise
that hereafter French interests in the de-
batable hinterland should be moro vigor-
oasIy looked after.
These antecedent circumstances raise a
t0lerably substantial presum ption against
the theory that the catastrophe at Warina
was due to an innocent mistake, but in
spite Of this feeling the London papers
speak very guardedly of the matter
Ministerial papers, like the Daily News
and Chronicle, are a tTifle more alarmist
IN tone than the Times and the Tory
organs, while evening papers of all shades
counsel cool heads and patience till II is
seen what the French will do. So far as
one hears from Paris there are only brief
press comments pitched in a rather care
less Key and foresh Allowing position that
the fault was British. because their troops
were not on British territory.
The danger is not so much that the
French Foreign Office desires to avoid an
apology and reparation as that the furious
anti-English spirit in Paris may fan up
commotion which will coerce the Foreign
Office into making difficulties against its
will. This was the case In the Siam diff
Guilty and the present is recognized by
eVeryb body to be far graver affair.
| am told tonight that sensational radi-
cal reforms may be looked for in the COM
ing budget as outlined to me. These
include big proposition for a graduated
income tax and lessening the burdens on
small incomes by increasing the ratio on
large. My informant also expects sweep
ing increase of death duties. He may b.
too sanguine, but happen to know that a
parliamentary committee of fifteen picked
radicals will next week present to Har-
court a public memorial urging these and
other reforms, and that there is a perfect
understanding that this is done to
strengthen his hands.
l am privately informed by one who
knows the main points of the results from
an official inquiry just finished that there
is no genuine ground for uneasiness about
the Bank of England. The criticisms d.
rected against its absurdly antiquated
methods and mischievous secretiveness are
valid enough and shortly there will be
steps taken to bring the old thing more up
to date, but in all financial essentials the
institution is all right. There have been
some foolish risks and sundry small seams
Of crookedness, too, but nothing In the
least affecting the stability of the bank