The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-06-03

return. But neither Nicholas II or his
advisers are ungrateful to France or
unmindful Of obligations which their
country lies under to the French re-
public. Russia is not prepared to aid
France to recover her lost prov
willing to give her all the moral if
not material aid she can; and the moral
support of Russia is dominating fac
tor in European politics.
Since the era of Napoleon Bonaparte
it has been the consistent rolicy Of
European lake. Italy has for genera
tlons been too poor and distracted to
Illustrate the plans of France. Turkey,
so long as she held the BCephorcus,
did not pay any particular attention
to what was going on in the ,Icvant,
and Russia was Cooped upf in the
Black sea. England was the only
country that baked her inordinatc am
bltion. She held Gibraltar. which COM
mands the entrance to the MedtCrra-
mean at the one end and dictated the
policy Of the sublime porte which con-
trolled the key of the Levant at the
other end. Today England's predomn-
ance in the Mediterranean is greater
than it was ever before. She now holds
Egypt as well as Gibraltar, while her
only port on the great inland sea IS
Marseilles. Algiers faces Gibraltar
and all the Notifications on this
French colonial possession are believed
to be impregnable. However, a battle
ship can pass both the forts on the
Algerian coast and the batteries on
the guns on each fertilization. They
are, of course, of immense strateGetical
value otherwise. There is Morocco
over which Spain exercises a nominal
sovereignty and on the coast of which
she has a few forts. The sultan Of
Morocco holds his tenure of the throne
as his brother Of Constantinorla does
through the jealousy of the European
Christian powers. The Canary Islands
and Ceuta in the Atlantic belong to
Spain. They are of singularly little
use to her. Having lost Cuba and
the Philippines, Spain would probably
sell them to France. She must do
something of The kind. a bankrupt
nation can no more carry on it's bust
ness than a bankrupt shopkeeper.
Money Spain must have and the sale
of these islands to wealthy and
friendly country like France after the
exhaustion Of great war she could
accomplish without degradation of her
Castlian pride and dignity.
There Is one thing certain, England
would never al'oW France to acquire
the islanCs by concession or purchase
without drawing the sword. These
beautiful islands are a favorite resort
of Englishmen during the winter
months. British capital is almost the
sole source of investment in these
islands. This is of course a matter of
no cause for intervention, as capital
is as secure under the regime of one
country as another. The islands are,
however, of great strategetiCal import
ance to Great Britain. They are on
the direct road to British West African
possessions and to India and Australia
by the Cape Of Good Hope route. In
fact they hold the commanding position
in the Atlantic that the Hawaiian ISL
ands do in the Pacific. Perhaps Spain
believes that we will take possession of
them permanently ortemporarily. five
should deem it necessary to do SO, and
the necessity may exist, we should
incur the abiding if not active inter-
ventiOn. Of France. 1t is certain that
we should not allow France to occupy
the Canaries until at any rate after the
close of the war no more than Eng
land. 1t may be that England and
the United States will have to cooper
ate to prevent her from doing so as
the London Chronicle suggests. Rus
sia would gladly see the tri-Color way
ing over the Canaries 1t would re-
lieve her of the pretensions Of France
in the far east.
10 UpNppOp,aDt cilappaJ C,,I