The San Francisco call., 1896-11-29
GREAT BRITAIN'S ISOLATION.

One OF the most important speeches OF
the year in England was delivered re-
Gently by Sir Charles Dixie at meeting
of the Liberals and Radicals at Enfield.
In the course of his address Sir Charles
made some extraordinary revelations of
the conduct of European diplomacy and
expressed himself as decidedly in favor of
the isolation of Great Britain from any
Edropean alliance.
The most important statements made
by Sir Charles were these: First, that
three great powers lately proposed 10
England the partition OF China and that
the British Government refused its con-
sent. Second, that the Russian general
who was reported to have inspected the
Dardanelles Notifications really did so
and moreover acted as the representative
of the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Third, that Russia, France and En- gland
could compel Turkey to carry out desired
reforms by simply agreeing among them
selves to turn over to Greece, in case the
Sultan refused, all the islands along the
coast of Asia Minor now held by the Turk
ish Government.
The speaker went on to say he was op-
posed to any policy looking to the parti-
ton OF the Turkish empire. Such a
policy meant great risk of general war and
moreover would entail arrangements detri-
mental to British trade and costly TO the
country as regards the scheme of national
defense. The partition of Turkey he
thought was as undesirable as the parti-
tion of China, but he declared that if
Russia and France would agree upon the
Of iefo 4,
would favor England's surrender OF Cy-
prus to Greece as a part of the general
plan.
The occupation of Egypt he declared to
be one of the most considerable diff
culties in the way of arranging such a
treaty with France and Russia. He.
moreover, regarded the occupation of
that country as a military weakness to
England and of no value whatever to the
empire. He declared himself, therefore, in
favor of abandoning Egypt as well as
Cyprus, thereby putting England in q
position where she could act with greater
force in the settlement of the Turkish
problem.
Sir Charles closed his speech by declar.
ing, however, that he did not seek nor
favor an alliance with France or Russia,
or any other nation further than was
necessary for the single object of set
tling the existing problem. A limited
alliance confined to the carrying out of a
certain definite purpose was as far as he
was willing to go. He declared outright
for policy OF isolation which would leave
England free in all cases and at all times
to control her own policy of action.
iOt ha
with the possible exception of Lord Sails
bury, Sir Charles Dixie is regarded as the
ablest master OF foreign affairs in British
politics. While his personal influence
was largely lost by the scandals in which
he was involved some years ago, his
knowledge of foreign politics and his pene-
trating insight into the conditions of
modern Europe were in no wise affected
by the circumstances which have excluded
him from further participation in any
Cabinet.
The British people, therefore, still listen
to him with interest and are largely
guioed by his counsel. He stands now
midway between the position taken by
Salisbury and that of Mr.. Gladstone, and
in the prevalent confusion OF British
| ideas as to what should be done in regard
to Turkey, it can hardly be doubted that
his speech will have great weight in de-
| termining the course to be pursued.