The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-05-04

1882, by the Bey of Tunis, placed the ad
 ministration of the province and the col
 lection of taxes in the hands of thu
 French. The impecunious condition o1
 the Italian treasury and the disorgani.
 zation of it's finances compelled tht
 Italian government to remain a cha.
 grined spectator of the rape of territory
 which 1t had long marked down for Its own; and the resentment toward France
 deepened, so preparing the way for the
 undisturbed occupation of Egypt by the
 British that took place the following year.
 l When the massacre of Alexandria, as lit was called, in which few Europeans
 and several hundred of Egyptians were
 killed, afforded the opportunity, the
 British government promptly took the lead. Proposals, more or less insincere, were made to the French government to
 act jointly with England, and declined. The British government, knowing that
 common action on the part of Italy and France was not to be feared under the
 circumstances, then turned to Italy
 with the same offer, but there also it
 was declined. The British government
 then, having nothing to apprehend from any quarter, decided to act alone. The
 French in the first flush of resentment
 at what they regarded as trickery on
 the part of the British, despatched their
 Mediterranean squadron from Toulon
 with the intention of attacking the Brit
 ish squadron at Alexandria. The indls-
 erect glee, of the German press induced
 calmer consideration of the situation,
 and by the time the French admiral
 reached Tunls, where he had been told
 to call for final orders he received in structions to return to France. The ev-
 ident expectation of Prince Bismarck
 that Egypt would be the cause of war
 between France and England was thus
 thwarted, and the policy which had
 been pursued at Berlin in cooperation with the sultan to stimulate the revolu-
 tionary party under Arabi Pacha with the object of bringing on the war failed. The intervention that was intended in the event of conflict came. conse- quently, to nothing and the oppcrtu- nifty of creating European control of the Mediterranean passed for the mo- ment.
 Care, however, has been taken by the other governments of Europe not to regularize the position of England In Egypt, and on one occasion Prince Bis marck employed the threat of calling conference to consider the position of England there as a means of compelling Lord Salisbury to make unpalatable concessions to Germany in connection with African matters. At the time of the occupation of Egypt in 1882 the Brit ish government had intended following 1t up by the occupation of certain points on the Gulf of Alexandretta opposite Cyprus, but for the reasons that remain obscure the Idea was abandoned. The presumption is that 1t was the opposl- tion of Germany, which has consistent ty been exerted against England at Corstantlnople from the days when Col onel Chesney first conceived the idea of the Euphrates Valley railway to the present time. The way in which Ger many has busted England commercially out of Turkey Is notorious; as is also the diplomatic supremacy of Germany at Constantinople since 1887.
 An incident at the end of the closing session of the suez canal convention that sat in London October 1888, near ly resulted in suspension of diploma tic relations between Germany and The evident intentional dis courtesy of Lord Granville to the Ger man ambassador, Count Munster, on the occasion caused Prince Bismarck to the latter for not having de- handed his passport and left London the same day, and later to remove him from London to Paris.
 The assertve position always taken lp by the British government with re- gard to Crete on account of Suda Bay, put more especially during the troubles n that island in 1S97-9S has also been a factor determining the Mediterranean powers to take the first favorable oppor- unity for curtailing the British fleet in he Mediterranean. The British conten- ion that Greece must never be allowed 70 possess Crete, because 1t would give Ter and any ally the control of the east ,rn Mediterranean, is resented not only ,y the Greeks, but by the powers under ! whose influence Greece politically and 1 falls. The mastery of | he Mediterranean by power owning | 10 country on It's shores has become in- | oerable for its political and financial to all the other states of | Europe The only government now | tanding in the way of an early libera- ion of the Mediterranean from a one l lower control is that of the German l mperor. Whenever Germany throws Ter weight into the scale the coalition gainst which England is armed will be ormed.
 tarting from the west, is briefly as fol- 1ws: Spain. having lost her colonies eyond the seas, is endeavoring to re- nter the European continental system l relation to which she has been so long n outsider. Quite recently she was ompelled to desist from constructing in the neighborhood of Gi- raltar, under a diplomatic threat from he British government that continu- nee in the work would be regarded as n unfriendly act Portugal is general , looked on in England as British utpost on the continent, and treated as uch. France on account of her North frican possessions has interests on oth sides of the Mediterranean. the zee intercommunication between which 1 vital to her prosperity. Italy as a Mediterranean power destined before ng also to have interests in North Af- ca, in Tripoli, is concerned in the lib- 'ation of the Mediterranean and in re- a sing herself from the conflicting ohIi l