The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-10
GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE
THE BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE
 ISSUES 4 BLUE BOOK.

Governments on the Fashoda Trouble and Discloses a Threatening Situation Salisbury Says the Right of Great
 Britain to All the Territories of Khali- fla ObdulIah Admits of No Discussion
 Franco Refuses to Recall Major
 Marchand and Salisbury Asserts There
 Will be No Compromise.
 London, Oct. 9.-The foreign office has issued Fashoda blue-book giving the correspondence between the French and British governments. It begins with a dispatch, dated December 10, 1897, from Sir Edmund Monson, British ambassador at Paris, to Lord Salisbury, referring to rumors of the massacre of the Marchand expedition and express ing the ambassadors satisfaction that Hanotaux (French foreign minister of that time) with Lord Salisbury's view that, if other questions are adjusted, Great Britain will make no difficulty regarding the French claim on the northern and eastern shores of Lake Tchad. The dispatch shows, however, that the ambassador made it clear that this concession must not be understood as admitting the right of any European power except Great Britain to occupy any part of the Nile valley.
 M Hanotaux replied on December "A in a long dispatch of respectful protest against Lord Salisbury's view. On Au- gust of this year Lord Salisbury wrote Lord Cromer, British diplomatic agent at Cairo, giving him instructions that after the capture of Khartoum two f1otillas should ascend to Fashoda and go up the Blue Nile as far as 1t should prove navigable for steamers. Under these instructions the sirdar was to command the Fashoda fleet and to take few troops if he should consider it de- sirable the object being to assert Great Britains sphere of influence in the Nile valley.
 Ou 5GpL6UlDeI { LAl4Hlulu IhOilooiA reported to Lord Salisbury converse tion in which M. Declasse, French for eign minister, announced that Mar chand had no authority to decide on questions of right and had been in- structed to abstain from any action likely to lead to local conflict. M. Delcasse further expressed a conviction that the matter was susceptible of ar engagement by means of discussion. To this Lord Salisbury replied on Septem- Der that Great Britain regarded the operations of the Sirdar General Kitch- ener) as placing all territories of Kha- lifa Abdullah, by right of conquest, in the hands of the British and Egyptian governments and insisted that this con- tention admitted of no discussion Then follow various dispatches regarding the discussions between Sir Edmund Mon son and M. Declasse, the latter explain ing that Marchand was now virtually a lieutenant to the Liotard expedition, and that therefore the situation at Fa- shoda, even if Marchand were there, could not be dangerous as Sir Edmund Monson had represented.
 On September 25-still following the blue book--the Sirdar reported the re- suit of his expedition to Fashoda, fully confirming the announcements already cabled including the fact that General Kitchener's arrival there prevented a second Dervish attack on Marchand. The French officer informed the Sirdar that he had concluded a treaty which he he had sent to France for ratifica- ton whereby the Shillok chiefs had EpoY,aI lection. Marchand replied in the nega- tive to General Kitchener's question whether he was prepared to resist the hoisting of the Egyptian flag, but he maintained that he had orders from the French government to occupy Fashoda.
 On the departure of the British forces General Kitcheners notified Major Marchand, in writing, that all trans portation of war material on the Nile was prohibited. The Sirdars dispatch concludes as follows: The chief Shll- 1oks came to our camp and positively denied that they had concluded any treaty with Marchand, while all the Shilloks declared their allegance to the British government. Moreover Mar chand was in such a precarious posi- tion that nothing could have prevented his annihilation by the Dervishes had we been a fortnight later in crushing the Khalifa."
 Other dispatches indicate that M. Declasse declined Great Britain's re- quest for the recall of Major Marchand and that Great Britain consented to dispatch a message for the French gov ernment to Major Marchand without accepting any responsibility for the re- suits delay might entail and still main taining that the matter admitted of no compromise In the final dispatch ap- bearing in the blue block Lord Sails bury under date of October instructs Sir Edmund Monson to inform M. De- classe that the latter's message to Ma ior Marchand has been sent, but that Great Britain views the Marchand mis- sion as having no political significance whatever.
 GR4VE SITUATION IN FRINGE.