Evening star., 1898-11-12
HATRED OF FRANCE
Has Survived Among the English
Since Napoleon's Time.
EVENTS OF INTEREST IN LONDON
Movement on Foot to Establish a
New Atlantic Line.
A FAMOUS OYSTER FEAST

| special Correspondence of The Evening Star
LONDON. November ., 1885,
The spectacle of a British general being
mobbed by his admirers on his return from
a victorious campaign was the sight to
| which London was treated on the arrival
| of Sir Herbert Kitchener last Thursday
/ evening. The streets around Victoria sta
ton, the West End terminus of the London
| Chatham and Dover railway, were blocked
and the police, usually so well organized on
| occasions like this, were utterly demor-
allied and powerless to cope with the
| crowds. The srdar was regularly mobhed
| At one time he was SO hemmed in that he
| was unable to move. Lord Roberts was
Knocked off his feet by a reporter who was
| hurled at him by an over-zealous constable:
| Prince Christian Victor was sent stagser-
| ing across the platform, and the sirdar's
! hat was knocked over his eyes and his
| coat torn. I'd rather be in Omdurman,' -
| ne was heard to gasp as he suffered the
martyrdom of such welcome At cne
time they lost him in the crowd, and he
might have got safely away unnoticed if
ne had yelled with them. Finally he es-
capped by crossing through the Brighton line
station, and was well on his way to Bel
grave square, where he is staying, when
the crowd was still clamoring for him out
side the station. The ever useful hanson
was the means of escape. The best and
the worst elements of London were in that
crowd. All the excitement over Fashoda
and all the ingrained British hatred of
Frenchmen We're in the greeting to the
hero of kaartoum. 1t is curious, this
hatred, especially among the middle classes
of England, for the French. The Germans
are disliked because they have come to
this country ard taken work from English
men, but this is not true of the French
For reasons for the British .rs hatred of
his Gallo neighbor one would have to go
back to Napoleonic times. and there he
would find them, when every British house
hold was for years in cons tant state of
alarm lest the shadow of invasion should
throw Its sinister influence over the land
ard watch towers We're built and main
tanned all around the coast; when hundreds
of companies, composed of farmers and
tllels of the soil, were drilled into militia,
ard like our own minute men, were fire.
Guently reused from their beds by the cry
The French are coming!"
why This Feeling.
.-.Here is the real origin of the feeling
against the French. The various revolu-
tions in France and the rise and fall Of
Successive monarchies and republics have
done nothing to allay this sentiment but
haverrather added to it. The Germans are
disiked, though not despised, but the
French are hated and held in thorough con-
tempt Not so much in cosmopolitan Lon
don is this SEEN but in the provinces where
this Gallphobia has been handed down
from father to son without break, is At to
be found in all its strength. Although the
feeling which l mentioned in last weeks
letter has somewhat quieted down, efforts
toward preparedness for a war have not
been relaxed in any degree, and the quiet
l.; the determined calm of those who know
what they want and have given their ulti-
matum en- the subject. Even the Specta-
tor, which cannot be accused of jingoism,
considers the peril of war by no means
past 1t sees in the French demands some
thing more than trade interests. In speak
ing of the project on the part of France TO
exchange Fashoda for other concessions,
the Spectator says: That France must
have the Bahr-e!-Ghazel and an outlet on
the Nile means practically that she must
have the means of impeding, when conve-
nicnt, the full sovereignty of Anglo-Egy
over the river She cannot have it without
battle" 1t then goes on TO count the cost
of a possible with France The war
may become unavoidable, and If so we
trust and believe that one will shrink
from the necessary sacrifices, but it will
put back the clock of civilization thirty
years. The war, even If it is only mari
time must be waged the modern scale;
England must be thoroughly armed, and
when it is over We shall be minus a third
of our fleet lost in destroying French ar
maments our debt will be again eight hun
dred millions, and we shall have lost the
opportunity of securing advantages in
China"