There was a great field-day on foreign affairs in the
French Chamber on Tuesday. . M. Delcasse in a long and interesting speech claimed that in the collective work undertaken by the Powers in China, it was the measures demanded by France that had been adopted ; while her unflinching action towards Turkey had consolidated her place "in the sunshine" of the Near East,—a -place that, from an industrial point of view, was equalled by that of no other Power. In Newfoundland they desired solely the exercise of incontestable rights, and would- always put in claims whenever those rights were menaced ; while they bad no ground for believing that they might have to defend French interests against attacks which might result from international 'agreements in regard to the New Hebrides or Siam. In Africa, by a series of treaties which had given them enormous territories, they bad been able to delimit their possessions and constitute " the vastest and most compact Empire in the African Continent." M. Delcasse then dwelt on the " friendly and confiding relations " estab- lished of late between France and Italy, their excellent understanding with the United States, and the "loyal and trusting exercise" of their alliance with Russia, "which had shown to the least perspicacious that it existed on a footing which made it indispensable to the equilibrium of the world."
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